Dialogism in the Discourse on Human Trafficking

Summing up part of the results of the research carried out by the Romanian team of “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi in the international FP7 project Gender, Migration and Intercultural Interaction in the Mediterranean and South-East Europe (Ge.M.IC.) (2008-2011), the paper focuses on human trafficking as the most violent, gender-marked form of migration. It aims at exploring the dynamics of trafficking-related conceptual frameworks at the crossroads of the public and private spheres as well as at assessing the impact of various discursive patterns on the (lack of) visibility of victims of violence. In this respect, it juxtaposes, for comparative purposes, two kinds of discursive patterns: the mainstream public – legal and institutional– discourses on trafficking that characterize the Romanian context, on the one hand, and individual testimonies of professionals working in various institutions that monitor the phenomenon and/or provide assistance to the victims in the Galaţi area, on the other.