Trafficked children are portrayed by the media—and even by child
welfare specialists—as hapless victims who are forced to migrate
from a poor country to the United States, where they serve as sex
slaves. But as Elzbieta M. Gozdziak reveals in Trafficked Children
in the United States, the picture is far more complex.
  Basing her observations on research with 140
children, most of them girls, from countries all over the globe,
Gozdziak debunks many myths and uncovers the realities of the
captivity, rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficked children. She
shows, for instance, that none of the girls and boys portrayed in
this book were kidnapped or physically forced to accompany their
traffickers. In many instances, parents, or smugglers paid by
family members, brought the girls to the U.S. Without exception,
the girls and boys in this study believed they were coming to the
States to find employment and in some cases educational
opportunities.  Following them from the time they were
trafficked to their years as young adults, Gozdziak gives the
children a voice so they can offer their own perspective on
rebuilding their lives—getting jobs, learning English, developing
friendships, and finding love. Gozdziak looks too at how the
children’s perspectives compare to the ideas of child welfare
programs, noting that the children focus on survival techniques
while the institutions focus, not helpfully, on vulnerability and
pathology. Gozdziak concludes that the services provided by
institutions are in effect a one-size-fits-all, trauma-based model,
one that ignores the diversity of experience among trafficked
children. Breaking new ground, Trafficked Children in the
United States offers a fresh take on what matters most to these
young people as they rebuild their lives in America.Â
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