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This paper explores the relationship between human trafficking and geographies of stigma based on qualitative research in Nepal. It explains how geographies of stigma circumscribe the agency of those who return from having experienced trafficking, affecting their livelihoods and mobilities. It examines processes of spatial differentiation, territorialisation and scalar hierarchies in relation to the production and navigation of stigma. This paper explores the relationship between human trafficking and geographies of stigma. We introduce post‐trafficking contexts as important settings for understanding how geographical imaginaries underpin the everyday occurrence of stigma for those who have experienced human trafficking. We show how a focus on trafficking can speak back to some of the core migration literatures in Geography, highlighting new agendas with a particular focus on the how, where, and why of stigma. The paper draws on qualitative research in Nepal and interviews with 46 women who have experienced trafficking, to explain how geographies of stigma circumscribe the agency of returnees and affect their livelihoods and mobilities. It examines themes of spatial differentiation, territorialisation, and scalar processes in relation to the production and navigation of stigma. It shows how post‐trafficking is given meaning and expressed through spatial form and relations, which become manifest in scalar hierarchies of stigma. The argument highlights how these hierarchies are anchored through trafficking routes and destinations. It contrasts village and city settings as potential sites of return, bringing centre stage the role of the city in mediating returnees' experiences. The analysis indicates how the categories of migrant and trafficked women are co‐produced through bureaucratisation processes. The documents and identificatory practices at the heart of state and non‐state interventions help produce the terms of in/visibility and social recognition for migrant women who often want to remain hidden. At the same time, they also reproduce some of the practices and mechanisms that underpin trafficking, thereby shaping the rejection, harassment, and abuse that comes with geographies of stigma for returnee women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with returning to sexual stigma in two key respects. First, it prompts a return to the conceptual understanding of sexual stigma and makes an important contribution to critiques of the individualized frameworks that have dominated much of the literature on stigma to date, through a critical analysis of sexual stigma as a collective process at different scales and locations. Second, using empirical data from a qualitative study of post‐trafficking experiences of women in Nepal as a case study to develop theoretical understandings of the production of stigma, it explores modalities of sexualized stigma encountered on return from trafficking situations. Within the trafficking literature there has been very little attention to what happens after trafficking. This article addresses this gap in focusing on lives post‐trafficking and, in addition, contributes to the limited research on trafficking in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the significance of post-trafficking scenarios for understanding bordering practices in political geography. In so doing, it addresses two significant research gaps: the lack of attention to trafficking in geography and the failure of wider interdisciplinary debates to engage with post-trafficking specifically. While extensive research in political geography has addressed the related experiences of refugees, asylum seekers and ‘illegals’, much of this work has centred on policies, processes and practices that aim to keep ‘unwanted strangers out’. By contrast, very little research has addressed how the border is configured for and by those who are crossing-back over; those who are ‘returning home’, in this case from diverse trafficking situations. The paper draws on recent empirical research on post-trafficking citizenship and livelihoods in Nepal which examined how women returning from trafficking situations deal with stigma and marginalisation. Our analysis illuminates how bordering practices circumscribe and shape women's lives in powerful ways as they seek to (re)establish a sense of belonging and respect. We examine the interplay of state and non-state actors (national and transnational) in structuring mobility and anti-trafficking advocacy through a range of bordering practices and explore how the border is (co-)produced by varied actors at different border sites. This includes women returning from diverse trafficking situations, who invoke the border to argue that they are ‘not as trafficked’ as other women, and others who perform the border differently as agents for trafficking prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual trafficking is a priority issue for many governments and has increasingly become a focus for debate within the academy. Despite this, many aspects of sexual trafficking remain poorly understood. In this article we focus on an area that has received scant attention in the literature: the situation of trafficked women when they return home and, specifically, the livelihood opportunities available to them as they experience differing notions of citizenship. In addition to the fact that there has been very little attempt to document poverty alleviation strategies post-trafficking, within the mainstream development literature little attention has also been given to questions of sexuality and how they relate to development and poverty reduction strategies. The aim of this article, therefore, is to seek to highlight a new research agenda and to develop an interdisciplinary framework to understand what we have termed 'the sexual politics of poverty'. Bringing together distinct literatures on sexual citizenship and sustainable livelihoods we develop our analysis of these themes through a focus on the livelihood opportunities and strategies of returnee trafficked women in South Asia, drawing on policy analysis at national and regional levels and qualitative research carried out in Nepal. In particular, the Nepal case study highlights problems with skills training for returnee women and examines the relationship between marriage and sustainable livelihood opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]