Modern Day Slavery Research Paper

Words: 638
Pages: 3

Although traditional slavery was legally abolished in 1980, slavery still exists in many forms today. Millions of people around the world are still being forced into labor, as they are treated like property, characteristics similar to the way slaves were treated back in the day. Despite being similar in some ways, there are multiple differences between modern-day slavery and traditional slavery. One difference is that traditional slavery was legal, meaning it was practiced openly compared to how modern slavery is usually hidden. Today, slavery exists in the shadows, as most slaves are illegal immigrants forced into labor as they are brought over from foreign countries to serve. Another difference was that back then slaves had the ability to …show more content…
These child slaves are being forced to produce cocoa on farms for many hours of the day all while being deprived of food and education. Forced labor in the Ivory Coast stems from the neocolonialism by the French. This is one major example of neocolonialism that is well and alive especially in Africa. Africa has an abundant amount of natural resources that range from diamonds and gold to cocoa beans and oil. However, despite their plethora of natural resources it seems that Africa will never actually directly benefit from it. As discussed in our books and in our lecture this all began when the World Bank and IMF began to offer loans to poor countries in Africa. As a result they forced these poor countries to privatize their economies giving Western corporations the ability to have access to their raw materials and markets. These structural adjustment plans led to deproletarianization, which is where forced labor was reintroduced as method of worker discipline and way to cut costs under capitalism. As a result, companies from China, France, The United States and many more have exploited these natural resources from Africa as they take advantage of the low costs and the cheap forced labor. The reason why I believe this will continue to grow is because nations in Africa have become dependent of these foreign nations. By providing a poor population with jobs, which did not exist