233 © The Author(s) 2020
S. Yea, Paved with Good Intentions?,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3239-5_9
CHAPTER 9
Conclusion: Paved with Good Intentions?
A TALE OF TWO VIGNETTES
This book has sought to understand the dynamics of the emerging anti-
traf fcking movement and framework by examining its evolution and
impulses, discourses, and strategies in a particular context. Singapore was
a logical choice to provide the site for such an examination, in part because
it is situated geographically as a signifcant regional destination for human
traf fcking in a range of sectors and drawing migrants from a large number
of ‘source’ countries in both South and Southeast Asia. Whilst these cir-
cumstances enable a detailed engagement with the experiences of exploit-
ative sojourns amongst migrant labourers, the choice of Singapore as the
site for discussion was also driven by my fortuitous opportunity to trace
the contours of an incipient anti-traf fcking movement there from its
inception in the early 2010s to the present day.
A few weeks before completing my feldwork in Singapore in late 2015,
two seemingly unrelated events provided pause to refect on the argu-
ments made in this book. The frst involved an email I received from the
Director of the NGO Emancipasia asking if I could advise on an appropri-
ate NGO to direct someone to, regarding a possible case referral. It
seemed the Director had been contacted by a person concerned for a
migrant entertainer they had stumbled across in Singapore. Whilst case
referrals are common elements of anti-traf fcking work, this situation rein-
forced a concern I had identifed several years earlier, namely, that many
organisations claiming to be working on human traf fcking in Singapore,