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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL

INSTITUTION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Social Sciences

Master thesis

The Embeddedness of Sex Trafficking in Nigeria: An Institutional Approach

Field of study: 38.04.04 Public Administration and Municipal Management

Master's program "Population and Development"

Patrick Whelan,

Reviewer Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.)

Svetlana S. Biryukova,

Scientific Supervisor Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.)

Ruben Flores,

Consultant Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.)

Leonid Y. Kosals

Moscow - 2017

Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Literature, Theory, and Clarification of Concepts

1.1 Victimhood and Labels

1.2 Consent

1.3 Processes, Power, and Transformation

1.4 Institutions and Embeddedness

1.5 The Need for a Theoretical Framework

2. Methodology

2.1 Data Collection

2.2 Data Analysis

3. Findings

3.1 Nigeria - Moscow ST Cycle

3.1.1 Nigeria - Moscow Power - Dependence Mechanisms

3.2 Nigeria - Italy

3.2.1 Nigeria - Italy Power - Dependence Mechanisms

3.3 Nigerian Sex Trafficking as an Institution

3.4 The Institutional Framework and Embeddedness of Nigerian ST

3.4.1 Formal Rules and their Enforcement

3.4.2 The Economy

3.4.3 The Family

3.4.4 Religion

3.4.5 Informal Institutions

3.4.6 Summary

4. Implications of Embedded Sex Trafficking

5. Recommendations

5.1 Nigeria

5.2 Host Countries

Conclusion

References

List of Abbreviations

Appendices

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to go beyond the superficial moral crusade surrounding Nigerian sex trafficking (ST) and examine it through social embeddedness theory to see the institutional roots of the phenomenon. This allows for an approach towards social change instead of the current one of repression and rehabilitation of the victims. Regardless of any moral judgments, I argue that ST is socially and economically embedded in Nigerian society and is supported and facilitated by its institutional environment. Proving this would allow policymakers to take the necessary actions to initiate change, including working together with communities to find institutional solutions to the problems creating ST. The problem with studying an institutional environment is its complexity, in that the institutions involved can be difficult to reveal, understand, and change. Analyzing the process and its principal factors, I developed an institutional framework with five elements. They are the formal rules and their enforcement; the economy; the family; religion; and informal institutions. To gather data about the institutional environment surrounding ST, I carried out an interdisciplinary study involving 32 interviews with trafficked women, anti-trafficking experts, academia, government officials, law enforcement, a public prosecutor, and a reformed pimp. From the patterns that emerged, I constructed the cycles that trafficking to Italy and Russia follows, which exposed the institutionalization of ST. By analyzing its interactions with other institutions, I showed how the institutional environment embeds ST, making it necessary, possible, and profitable. From there I derive implications as to what embedded ST means for society, namely, that ST will continue to thrive as a viable economic opportunity, solidifying the institution of exploitation-garnered empowerment, and further `othering' of the Nigerian, reducing legitimate opportunities and reinforcing the institutional trap. My primary recommendation is for policymakers to revisit their method of governance, recognizing the failure of democracy in Nigeria's weak institutional environment, but also the danger of dictatorship in a fractionalized state, opting, therefore, for a representative authoritarian meritocracy. I also propose that the government work with the community in examining its institutions so that relevant, holistic solutions can be found to increase trust and strengthen institutions, reduce personal development costs, enable opportunities, decrease corruption, and lead the region to greater socio-economic development to stop ST at the root.

Keywords: exploitation, informal institutions, institutional framework, othering, power, processual theory, social crime, social networks, socio-economic development

Acknowledgments

Writing this thesis has been a transformative experience. As a lifelong student of the human condition, delving into the institutional underpinnings of society to explain sex trafficking has radically enhanced my vision of how the world works, whether related to ST or not. What enabled me to apply institutional theory to such a complex problem and to gain as much as I did, was the background I received throughout the Master program at HSE. The Population and Development program, with its broad range of subjects designed to guide the student towards looking for answers everywhere, because there is no problem in the world that is unidisciplinary, set the stage for the broad approach taken in this paper. I will forever be grateful to Vladimir Kozlov and the Higher School of Economics for giving me the wonderful opportunity to study in Moscow at this great university. From the program, I also want to thank Ena Redћiж for her friendship and as a study partner - I believe we both pushed each other to be better than we were.

Many people, having seen my presentations about this topic, have said that I was `lucky' to have had such an interesting topic which seemed to tell the story on its own. That, I take as a compliment, because it means that I took all the stressful months without a clear topic, reading anything and everything, while debating with everyone to try and find the right direction, and turned it into something coherent and easy to digest.

However, if I am to be honest, I was actually very lucky. Not only did I have an academic advisor who cared about my work and wanted to see me succeed, but I had two of them. Ruben Flores agreed to supervise me when nobody else in the university felt suitable to advise on the topic of sexual exploitation. Ruben was also not an expert on the subject but had faith that I could be the expert while he guided my research and writing methods. Shortly thereafter, Leon Kosals contacted me and joined our team, giving us the perfect development-sociology-criminology trifecta. In over a year of working together, they were always available to answer any questions I had, and it was not unusual for us to share several email exchanges nearly every day. Even when they both had obligations pulling them away from HSE, we still maintained the trifecta through Skype and email. Together they helped transform me from an informal enthusiast into a scholar, and I will be forever grateful.

As this was my first ethnographic investigation, I cannot help but feel completely indebted to everybody I worked with throughout this process, and I could easily extend this acknowledgments section to ten pages. This research would not have happened without the amazing people at MPC Social Services, Kendra Twenter, Danya Spencer, and Imanni Burg, and `Kenny' Kehinde from Help Services for Nigerians who introduced me to the brave women who were seeking their help. The first night that I interviewed four women in a safe house was an extremely emotional and life altering affair and I will never forget how deeply happy I felt upon seeing one of the women's excitement upon getting her notice that she was going home. I also want to thank IOM, the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow, Safehouse, Evon Idahosa of Pathfinders, the anonymous NGO director and members, and Lili di Puppo of HSE for your support. I also want to thank Oluwafemi and Emmanuelle for some much needed Nigerian context.

I want to thank Luciano Brancaccio for hosting my internship in Naples. I enjoyed our conversations and it was a great experience living and studying in the beautiful, historic city. I also want to thank all the professors and staff at Federico II for being very helpful and making me feel welcome. And thank you Monica Massari for opening my eyes to the implications of ST, and for giving me an extra reason to visit Florence.

At last, but certainly not least, thank you Fatimah Ekhikhebolo and the twelve unnamed Nigerian women I interviewed. I know telling your stories was not easy but I can only hope that the process that started with your story ends in a Nigeria you can all be proud of.

Patrick Whelan

Moscow, Russia, May 2017

Introduction

In 1944, Karl Polanyi, in describing the process of societal change leading up to the World Wars said, "Instead of [the] economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are embedded in the economic system" (Polanyi, 2001 [1944], p. 60). Thus the economy has been given priority over social relations and indeed shapes social relations. The very idea that the economy is more important than social relations means it is acceptable to sacrifice social relations - to exploit a friend or family member - to serve economic interests. However, Block, in the introduction, says that Polanyi did not mean this to be entirely accurate, as it would mean the annihilation of the "human and natural substance of society" (Block, 2001, p. xxv). Though given the evidence throughout this dissertation of human trafficking (HT) for sexual exploitation in Nigeria, henceforth referred to as sex trafficking (ST), one has to ask whether it may be true in some societies.

Slavery, HT, and ST have been happening around the world for millennia, yet, when an examination of the methods being used to eradicate them is conducted, typically only means of repression and rehabilitation can be found. Certainly, we can expect that a practice which has survived the rise and fall of mighty empires will not be destroyed merely by passing laws, supposing society will abide by them, and corrupt officials and law enforcement will enforce them. Why, after all this time, are governments sticking to their failing tactics since they abolished slavery in the 19^th century? The UK officially abolished the slave trade in 1807, but it was not until 1939 that Nigeria abolished it. Why, in this age of information, are governments, international organizations, and academia not making a more concerted effort to learn more and understand the causes of the practice so that they can address them? Why does nobody appear to grasp that ST is just a symptom of other diseases in society?

There is a trend beginning in academia of distancing itself from the moral crusade "A moral crusade is a type of social movement that defines a particular condition or activity as an unqualified evil and sees its mission as a righteous enterprise with both symbolic goals (attempting to redraw or bolster normative boundaries and moral standards) and instrumental ones (providing relief to victims, punishing evildoers). Some moral crusades are motivated by genuine humanitarian concerns and desires to help victims while others are mainly interested in imposing a set of moral standards on others" (Weitzer, 2010, p. 325). that has surrounded ST for the past decade. Authors such as Chuang (2014), Ebintra (2017), Lobasz (2012), Massari (2009), Skilbrei & Tveit (2008), Vijeyarasa (2016), and Weitzer (2015) challenge the status quo and dare to look deeper at the causes and mechanisms of this complex phenomenon, recognizing that ST is not simply a devious act carried out by societal outcasts, but is a manifestation of pressures within society.

I was part of that moral crusade as well, as the forced sexual exploitation of women, men, and children is one of the darkest horrors prevalent in society. However, through my research, I came to see that while cases of kidnapping and forced sexual exploitation certainly do happen, they appear to be the exception, not the rule. Furthermore, forced ST usually occurs within the channels that traffic people voluntarily, as the majority of cases considered to be ST do involve some level of agency on behalf of the trafficked. However, because of the United Nations Palermo Protocol's (2004) definition of trafficking being the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means […]of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability […], for the purpose of [sexual]exploitation", and deception and vulnerability are often involved, they are still considered to be ST. However, while there is deception, and an exploitation of vulnerability, ST also plays a role in the empowerment of the trafficked person, allowing them to gain resources and climb the social ladder within their community. The line between migration-for-prostitution and ST is blurred. It is this blurriness which requires a more detached study into the phenomenon of ST.

Nonetheless, even if there are agency and empowerment in ST, the problems associated with the trafficking of Nigerians for sexual exploitation are many. Not only does it temporarily rob people of their freedom and commodify them through commercial sexual exploitation, often involving physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, but the same channels used to traffic humans are also being used to traffic drugs, weapons, and money (Politzer & Kassie, 2016). Also, these channels export violence as the Nigerian criminal elements clash with those of their host countries, which often have different methods and ideals as a mafia organization Information about the Nigerian mafia comes from personal communications with De Santis and Conzo on February 21, 2017 in Naples.. However, even worse than the violence and the exploitation of individuals is the effect that it is having on society, especially in Nigeria and the host countries. Because consensual ST is both somebody's exploitation and empowerment, and many other actors are benefiting as well, the desire to facilitate it is creating institutions which cause it to become embedded in society.

On the surface, one can say that factors causing ST in Nigeria are poverty, inequality, a lack of education, a lack of opportunities, ignorance, deception, and greed. Nigeria's rapidly growing population, high unemployment, low wages, job insecurity, and low human development (GSI, 2016; UNDP, 2015; WB, 2015) also create a situation that is desirable to escape. However, these desperate situations exist in many places, and the result is not always widespread ST as it is in Nigeria. Therefore, it is necessary to look deeper at other forces pushing Nigerians into ST instead of other informal opportunities.

In his article, Human Trafficking and Contemporary Slavery, Ronald Weitzer (2015, p. 224) best summarizes the literature thus far devoted to sex trafficking. "Legislative and enforcement initiatives have outpaced social science research [meaning that] domestic and international policies have been formulated largely without any basis in credible evidence." After reviewing 100 academic articles, very few were found to have original research, while most were only repeating the arguments and unsubstantiated empirical estimates made by government agencies and international organizations. Another review of 1500 different publications found that only one-third included empirical findings, though most used convenience samples or unidentified samples. Of 41 books reviewed, most cited "arguably flawed sources," while only a few contained original research. Most of the books were published by academic presses while containing no more evidence than the popular books. None were shown to doubt the dubious estimate of 27 million slaves in the world today, while three at least questioned the basis for the claim.

This superficial level of research validates Weitzer's claim of a moral crusade. To use a term coined by Christie (2001) when referring to gangs, sex trafficking "provides a ready-made `suitable enemy,' suitable precisely because no one can disagree with its classification as such". Hallsworth and Brotherton add that by constructing something as a suitable enemy, "complex social problems that have their origins in the way our society is organized are being translated instead into problems of law and order to which illiberal law and order solutions are then made to appear logical and necessary" (Hallsworth & Brotherton, 2011, p. 6; Queirolo Palmas, 2015, p. 1). If we are to gain real understanding, there is a need to separate ST and its participants from enemy-ness, and find the root causes of migration, trafficking, and prostitution, including the barriers to women's economic advancement (Weitzer, 2015).

As a detached, interdisciplinary study of the institutionalization and embeddedness of trafficking in Nigeria, I am not examining a crime, tragedy, right, or wrong, but a choice - a decision - made by the trafficked, traffickers, families, and other colluders, and the effects of institutions on that choice. This approach is necessary because, while others have recognized agency, there has not been an assessment of the institutional forces affecting this agency, and knowing the forces affecting each member of the ST value chain will enable policy makers to address them in trying to find a solution.

Subsequently, this research seeks to answer the question of whether ST is indeed embedded in social relations. Moreover, if so, what institutions cause it to be embedded, and how? What does it mean for ST to be embedded? If it is embedded, is it possible to disembed it? How? My argument is that ST is embedded and that the existence of agency, patterns, processes, cycles, participant transformations, and comprehensive institutional interactions underscore this embeddedness.

The main contribution of this research is that it goes beyond the superficial to expose the root causes of ST in Nigeria, and its apparent permanence. The importance of this investigation is that, while a highly embedded institution such as ST is nearly impossible to eradicate, any hope of creating change requires a holistic approach, considering the causes of its embeddedness. This research also adds to the growing trend of objectivity in the study of this topic. Furthermore, in confronting the dysfunctional aspects of society which lead to ST, this research adds to the dialogue concerning socio-economic development in the country. Additionally, since a study such as this has not been done before, leaving me to derive a method of analysis from institutional, embeddedness, process, and power theory, this research can be used as a guide to studying many other processes and informal institutions.

Applying the derived method to my interdisciplinary study, I was able to convert the observed patterns into a process outlining stages which have a particular structure with defined roles, locations, actions, and actors, highlighting the institutional aspect of ST. Furthermore, by applying power-dependence theory to the ST process, I revealed the possible mechanisms of transformation that trafficked people go through. Then, by analyzing the interactions between the process and other institutions, essentially the root causes of ST, I was able to portray its embeddedness clearly. The decisions within ST are profoundly influenced not only by economic factors, but formal institutional structures, religion, the family, and informal institutions, making it highly embedded.

The path to this revelation will begin by outlining the concepts and relevant literature regarding ST, embeddedness, and institutions. Then, after describing the methodology used to apply that theory, observed patterns in case studies from Russia and Italy will be analyzed to show the institutionalization of ST, and then an analysis of ST's interaction with other institutions will show its embeddedness. Following that, I discuss the interaction between the institutional environment and ST, and its implications. I then propose a drastic rearrangement of politics in the country as a way of facilitating growth and development, before making my concluding remarks about further uses for this research.

1. Literature, Theory, and Clarification of Concepts

Before we continue, due to different uses of several of the concepts employed in this research, it is imperative that I make some clarifications.

1.1 Victimhood and Labels

When speaking of a criminal offense, there is always a victim. In the crime of Nigerian ST, which usually consists of bribery, forgery, corruption, smuggling, tax evasion, and illegal prostitution, among the victims is the government of the country in which the crime takes place and society in general. When referring to the trafficked persons, they are usually females who are smuggled abroad for prostitution. For the person that is trafficked, as they enter into trafficking through deception and manipulation, they are certainly victims. However, as I will show later, trafficked people, through processes and power dynamics, go through a transformation which eventually makes them a willing accomplice in trafficking. Not all of the victims transform, though, and for those that do not, the experience is beyond traumatic and limiting.

In describing any situation, I must use names or labels so that the audience can follow along. However, there is an inherent risk when attaching labels - that of `othering.' To label somebody a victim or a trafficked person is to say they are not one of us, but one of `them,' a person removed from society, existing not here, but nowhere - in a "no-place space" (Massari, 2009, p. 4). In a phenomenon where `otherness' is rampant The concept of `otherness' in ST comes from Massari's 2009 paper and personal communication with her on February 23, 2017 in Florence., and where the goal is to show the embeddedness, the oneness with society, I must refrain from attaching such labels. If I only use the term `woman,' as women represent the vast majority of people who are trafficked for sexual exploitation, I would contribute to the `othering' of the female gender and moreover disregard the existence of trafficking in men and children. Therefore, to recognize the universality of ST - that anybody embedded in the same institutional framework could end up in the same situation - and to acknowledge the blurriness between trafficking and smuggling, I will refer to those who go through the ST process simply as a `person,' or `people,' unless referring to somebody specific. For clarity, I will refrain from referring to anybody else as such.

1.2 Consent

Whether it can be called consent in Nigerian ST is debatable. Indeed, the person gives a positive reply to the offer of performing prostitution under debt bondage, but if the trafficked does not know the full extent of how they will be treated and the dangers therein, can it qualify as informed consent? Additionally, if a child is convinced by their parent to consent to trafficking, essentially an abuse of a position of authority, can we call it consent? In examining the embeddedness of ST, and the institutional influence on it, including by the family, I am looking at how decisions are influenced and manipulated by outside forces, making a further examination of consent irrelevant. The forces which affect consent, and the whole ST phenomenon, are the subject of investigation in this research.

1.3 Processes, Power, and Transformation

When considering that the definition of human trafficking according to the Palermo Protocol, to be "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons,"(UNODC, 2004) by immoral means for the purpose of exploitation, it is strange that a processual approach has not been applied to the study of ST before. Daniel Little (2016) summarizes Abbott (2016) in saying that the social world is "a set of ongoing processes rather than a collection of social entities and structures", and that a social process is "a series of choices, developments, outcomes, and plans that accumulate over time in ways that in turn affect the individual's mentality". What this means is that any ongoing activity, such as a job, or a relationship is not a static event with one choice and one outcome, such as, `I choose to work, and now I work,' but is a series of options and consequences, which contribute to modifying the way we think. To elaborate on this example, when somebody decides they desire to work, they must then learn what options are available to them. Perhaps they will not find the exact job they want and must settle for something related. Then, they need to apply for the position. If the application process is time-consuming and intense, they may deem the job not worth the effort and stop the application and start looking for other jobs. Or, perhaps they make an effort; gain an interview; prepare for, and succeed in the interview; commence the job; go through the training period and then decide the job is not for them. Or, out of desperation, and being partially committed, they continue, becoming more entrenched in the position, until path dependence sets in, and the idea of leaving the job and starting the application process all over again seems too daunting. In this still rather simplified example, the previous example of simply choosing to work and then working has turned into a series of choices, in which different decisions at various points may have yielded different results. When processes are problematic it is important to study the phases of the process, the potential outcomes of each phase, and the forces facilitating movement between phases so that weaknesses can be identified and addressed, either to disrupt a negative process or to facilitate a positive one.

Every tough decision we make is a venture into the unknown, for if we knew the outcomes, the decision would not be so daunting. Revealing unknowns can fundamentally change who we are as we process the new data and choose to accept and adapt to it or to reject it. Therefore, it is important to study processes, which involve series' of decisions, as means of transformation, as well. When considering ST, where there is a substantial power difference between the person and the trafficker, and in which the person becomes dependent on the trafficker, it is important to examine the effect of this power-dependence relationship on transformation. Emerson states that the power of A over B is equal to the dependence of B on A and that A is also dependent on B, giving B some power over A (1962, p. 32). It is possible that this power relationship can be equal, with both exerting power over each other, as when an employer demands exemplary work from her most valuable employees, while those employees demand high wages, comfortable working conditions and other perks to prevent them from leaving to join the competition. However, in exploitative situations the relationship is unbalanced, allowing A to dominate B. An example of this is during a period of high unemployment when employers have many candidates for their jobs, while job seekers have few opportunities, creating an imbalance of power in favor of the employer.

Our desire for autonomy creates stress when we are being dominated by another, forcing us to seek some method of exit from the stressful situation. Emerson states that the tensions rising from the power imbalance can be reduced in one of two ways. Either the dominated changes their goals and exits the relationship, which, in the case of ST, would take the form of a rejection of the trafficking offer, or an escape from ST; or they redefine their moral values, and accept, and adapt to, the new situation (Emerson, 1962, p. 34). Therefore, in the case of a social process, with each stage representing a new power imbalance, for the dominated to continue through the process, they need to accept and adapt at every stage, redefining their moral values along the way, transforming who they are. Thus, a person who enters such a process, ripe with power imbalances, can be a much different person when they come out. As I will show later, this helps to explain how a trafficked person can transform from a naпve victim during recruitment, to a willing accomplice by the time their debt bondage begins. However, it must be noted that this was not the focus of the research and is theoretical at this point as I have no direct evidence of such a transformation.

1.4 Institutions and Embeddedness

For complex phenomena such as ST, as William Riker once said, "the study of tastes is not enough […] one must study institutions as well" (Riker, 1982, p. 24). Institutions are the "rules of the game"; the formal and informal rules which structure political, economic, religious, and social relations (Duina, 2011; Gibson, McKean, & Ostrom, 2000; North, 1991; Ostrom, 1986); the `formal transpositions of habit'(Ambrosino, 2017, p. 7; Veblen, 1899), the norms, practices and unwritten rules, which emerge endogenously and are shared and enforced (Aoki, 2001, p. 10; Greif, 1998, p. 80; Sjцstrand, 1993, p. 326). These rules do not directly affect behavior. Instead, they shape the "structure of a situation in which actions are selected" (Ostrom, 1986, p. 6). These rules structure situations by delineating which actions or sets of outcomes are forbidden; or, by specifying the actions or outcomes which are permitted, and to what extent; or, by specifying a particular action or outcome (p. 7), such as a specific penalty for a specific infraction. North claims that the principal function of rules is to facilitate exchange, either political or economic (1997, p. 4).

Formal institutions, such as laws, regulations, and bureaucracy, are usually endogenously embryonic institutions which authorities deemed necessary to formalize and enforce as written rules. An example would be property rights, which reflect how society believes resources should be used. However, in many cases, laws are exogenous in that countries are pressured to adopt them by organizations such as the United Nations, or insistent countries, such as the USA. Examples would be laws concerning ST, corruption, and human rights. Though, without an informal institutional grounding, these laws are questionable as institutions in some societies, and can be described as unsupported legislative declarations (Hodgson, 2006, p. 17; Maroљeviж & Jurkoviж, 2013, p. 702). It is possible, however, for exogenous rules to become institutions and affect behavior within society if they are strictly enforced (Ambrosino & Fiori, 2017), allowing society to learn that a particular set of outcomes are not permitted. But, this requires strong institutions of enforcement.

Informal rules, however, are not as accurately defined as formal rules. "They are extensions, elaborations, and qualifications of rules that `solve' innumerable exchange problems not completely covered by formal rules and that in consequence have tenacious survival ability" (North, 1997, p. 4). They enable a flow of exchanges in everyday life without the burden of formality. Included among informal institutions are routines, traditions, customs, culture, conventions, norms defining interpersonal relationships, and self-imposed codes of conduct. Corruption, for example, qualifies as an informal institution in that it specifies actions or outcomes that are permitted, such as the exchange of money for political favors. In highly corrupted societies it may mean that a positive reply to a request is always possible if you have ways to pay for it, but on the other hand, it may also mean that a positive response requires payment. However, before the interaction even takes place, both parties know the set of outcomes that are possible because the institution of corruption is prevalent and structures such interactions.

The concept of embeddedness originated in The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (2001 [1944]) while discussing the question of whether social relations shaped the economy, or vice versa. He posits that, given the vital importance to society that we have placed on the economy, "once the economic system is organized in separate institutions, based on specific motives and conferring a special status, society must be shaped in such a manner as to allow that system to function according to its own laws" (p. 60). Therefore, the economic system molds social relations and social relations are embedded in the economic system.

It is possible Polanyi drew the metaphor of `embeddedness' from his research of the English mining industry, involving the extraction of coal embedded in the walls of mines (Polanyi, 2001 [1944]). The term is quite fitting if you consider something more distinguishable than coal, such as a gold vein, embedded in three-dimensional space in the wall of a mine, noting that the mineral composition of different veins are the same (gold), while no two veins are exactly alike. This uniqueness is a result of the forces exerting pressure on it from every direction. Different compositions of the material surrounding the vein, in different magnitudes, exerting forces over millions of years, create a unique shape and structure in the resultant vein. The localized earth molds the gold vein, therefore the gold vein is embedded in the localized earth. It is important to note that the vein of gold itself is also a component of the localized earth, and exerts pressure in concert with, and against, the other elements, resulting in a stable equilibrium.

If the gold vein represents an institution, the different forces acting on it represents its institutional framework. The institution and its institutional framework represent the localized earth, which is a metaphor for local society. Therefore, an embedded institution is a part of society that has been shaped by society, and also contributes to shaping society. Now, as Granovetter (1985) points out, the problem with embeddedness is that it is not easily disembedded. How is a vein of gold extracted from the earth? Either by destroying the localized earth and removing the gold from the debris or when the forces within the localized earth push it out, very slowly, over an extended period, eventually depositing it in rivers and streams. It is the same for embedded institutions. Either there has to be a major shock to society, such as a significant technological advancement, war, or revolution, or the institutional framework slowly pushes it out, which can take hundreds or thousands of years (Roland, 2004).

Buddhism, for example, is an institution which has been in existence for approximately 2500 years (Bapat, 2016). Although the strength of the institution may have declined over the centuries, arguably due to technological advancement, globalization, and a mixing of values, it has persisted and can expect to endure for a while longer. While one might say that Buddhism and ST do not belong in the same sentence - as institutions, forces that shape, and are shaped by society - they do have something in common. ST has been devised as an institution to sate the ego and to ensure the survival of its participants through exploitative materialism, while Buddhism gives adherents the mechanisms to survive by reducing the ego, making its satiation less exploitative and materialistic. Though it may sound like the introduction of Buddhism to Nigeria is the key to ending ST, I must remind the reader that ST is quite widespread in Buddhist countries as well (USDOS, 2015). Institutions are not modular, in that one cannot be easily replaced by another. If gold could somehow be extracted without destroying the localized earth, inserting another mineral with different properties in its place will result in a different equilibrium of forces, destabilizing the localized earth. The properties of the gold vein and the properties of the surrounding materials structure the relationship between them. The same can be said of institutions, in that the way ST interacts with the economy is not the same way it interacts with the family, even though they each help to shape each other and create an equilibrium, along with other institutions. Abruptly removing ST will affect the economy, the family, and the other institutions within the local framework.

However, not all institutions are embedded. Vegetarianism, for example, is embedded in some societies in India, as it is influenced by religion, the family, the community, and the economy, as meat products are nearly impossible to acquire in those areas. To remove the institution of vegetarianism from those areas would be challenging and would take a long time, if it were at all possible. In Canada, however, while vegetarianism is practiced and may be a growing trend, at this time, there is no overwhelming pressure from various institutions to be vegetarian. If in the future, resources become scarce, making meat-eating unsustainable, formal regulations, the economy, and social norms may pressure people into becoming vegetarian, making it embedded. Conversely, if new attempts at creating safe, laboratory grown meat become sustainable, vegetarianism may wane and never become embedded in Canada.

1.5 The Need for a Theoretical Framework

According to Ostrom (1990, p. 214), given a complex institutional situation, as ST undoubtedly is, it is necessary to create a broad theoretical framework before jumping straight into a quantitative analysis. With a greater understanding of the situation from a macro level, that framework could then be used to create a family of models to investigate niches at the micro level. Furthermore, relying on models gives the impression that the situation is one for the government to manage, while a social issue such as ST requires the involvement of the community in creating change. Ostrom continues to say that contemporary studies in fields such as ST, which have an undeveloped theoretical base, "need [contributions] to be carried forward in theoretically informed empirical inquiries" (p.216).

2. Methodology

2.1 Data Collection

I conducted a comparative study of Nigerian ST both to Moscow, Russia and to Italy. The reason why only Moscow, a single Russian city, is being compared to Italy, an entire country, is because no data exists on Nigerian trafficking to Russia, forcing me to rely on my primary data, which exists only for Moscow. There is extensive literature on trafficking to Italy, allowing me to use primary and secondary data to make generalizations about the entire country. My primary data, in the form of interviews, were collected in two stages. I conducted twenty-seven in-depth interviews in Moscow, and online, between April and June 2016. Most of the interviewees were found through snowballing and included twelve Nigerian females trafficked to Moscow; a Nigerian Embassy official; two Nigerian graduate students at the Higher School of Economics; four senior members of the International Organization for Migration (IOM); Evon Idahosa, the creator of Pathfinders Justice Initiative, a Nigerian NGO specializing in ST prevention and victim rehabilitation; Oluremi Kehinde, founder of Help Services for Nigerians in Russia, an NGO specializing in the rescue and rehabilitation of people trafficked to Moscow; three members of the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC), including the programme coordinator, a healthcare professional, and a volunteer; the anonymous director and a volunteer of an anonymous anti-trafficking NGO; and a reformed Russian pimp. The second stage of data collection took place in Naples and Florence, Italy, between February and April 2017 during an internship with a `Mafia, Camorra, and Criminal Networks' research group at Universitб di Napoli - Federico II. There, I interviewed Fatimah Ekhikhebolo, a Nigerian woman trafficked to Italy in 1992 who has since spent 17 years working with La Gatta, an anti-trafficking NGO; Luciano Brancaccio, an organized crime expert and sociology professor; Monica Massari, an expert on transnational crime and gender studies, and a political science professor; Maresciallo de Santis, a Carabinieri The Carabinieri are Italy's military police also responsible for investigation and enforcement related to organized crime. officer specialized in Nigerian organized crime; and Giovanni Conzo, a public prosecutor specializing in Nigerian organized crime in Italy. I also consulted with numerous experts around the world through email and Skype, including Melissa Farley, Lauren McCarthy, Ronald Weitzer, May-Len Skilbrei, and Francesco Duina, among others. Given the vast availability of literature and media devoted to Nigerian trafficking to Italy, my previous experiences with interviewing trafficked Nigerian women, and the extensive experience and expertise of the experts in Italy, I did not feel that a further understanding of the embeddedness of trafficking in Nigeria would have come from more interviews with trafficked persons in Italy. I had also learned that talking to authorities or NGOs brought punishments and extended debt bondage for those in Italy.

Twelve of the Nigerian females, the Nigerian embassy official, the director of the anti-trafficking NGO, and the reformed pimp preferred to remain anonymous due to the obvious dangers - physical, legal, and political - within the ST realm. Eight of the Nigerian women, the reformed pimp, the Carabinieri officer, and the public prosecutor were only interviewed once, while I maintained an ongoing discussion with the experts. I interviewed four of the Nigerian women in Moscow and Ekhikhebolo in Italy twice for greater clarification.

The Nigerian women in Moscow, all being assisted by the anti-trafficking community, were key sources regarding the phases of the Nigeria - Moscow ST process, and the pressures between them. Ekhikhebolo, having been trafficked, and then having spent 17 years in anti-trafficking activities, frequently mixing with and talking to currently debt-bonded Nigerians, has a view of Nigerian trafficking that very few others could have, which allowed me to piece together the entire ST cycle from Nigeria to Italy. Hearing the stories of Ekhikhebolo and the 12 Nigerian women, firsthand, was crucial to the research.

Furthermore, the unique assortment of experts that I interviewed allowed me to have a very comprehensive view of Nigerian ST. All of the experts had a macro-level view of ST from a functional perspective. The embassy official contributed a political point of view; Conzo and de Santis provided a legal and law enforcement perspective; the many NGO experts gave a community and interventionist view; the reformed pimp gave the inside, criminal perspective; the Nigerian graduate students provided much-needed context; and the academics helped me to make sense of it all through criminological, sociological, political, economic and development theory.

At the inception of this research, the only goal was a comprehensive understanding of ST. For preliminary data, I sought inspiration from Farley et al. (2004) about prostitution in nine countries, and Freed's (2004) research about prostitution in Cambodia. I also brainstormed with professors from different academic backgrounds, including criminology, development, sociology, and demographics. I sought information on the pre-trafficking background of the people; the sequence of events in the trafficking experience; specifics about sexual exploitation and debt bondage; escape from debt bondage; life prospects after debt bondage; and the feelings and motivations at all points of the ST experience. The information I sought is in Appendix 1. Data pursued from experts was related to their area of expertise though the discussion always extended to their view of the overall situation. I attempted to maintain an informal atmosphere during interviews to establish rapport and to facilitate a free flow of potentially unforeseen information, while also ensuring to gather all the data I wanted.

Most interviews lasted from forty-five minutes to two hours and some were audio-recorded with permission. Each of the interviews with Ekhikhebolo lasted about four hours and were not recorded. I was not allowed to record with the reformed pimp or the Nigerian government official. Most interviews were face-to-face, except with the anonymous NGO director, who was outside the country, and Idahosa, who was in New York. For these, interviews were conducted using internet teleconferencing. The three members of MPC were given two weeks to complete an open-ended questionnaire, which is in Appendix 2. I also held pre and post-questionnaire discussions with the volunteer and program coordinator. Most interviews were carried out in English, except for the reformed pimp, who spoke Russian, and de Santis and Conzo, who spoke Italian. MPC provided the Russian translation, while Brancaccio translated Italian. The Nigerian women in Moscow were all interviewed with other Nigerians or NGO members present, while Ekhikhebolo was conversed with alone.

2.2 Data Analysis

A direct interpretation method (Abbott, 2004) was used to analyze the data. With ST manifesting itself in diverse ways around the world, it was surprising when a clear pattern began to emerge in the stories of the women, and from the discussions with experts, some of whom had worked with hundreds of cases. After clarifying the pattern with respondents, I established the Nigeria-Moscow cycle. This cycle, however, is best understood as a Weberian ideal type (Weber, 1949), which means that while deviations are possible, I had not heard of any. Having established the cycle, a further analysis of the literature and primary data provided a greater understanding of the phases and the pressures facilitating movement between them.

Furthermore, upon recreation of the cycle, I found I had more questions than answers. How had nobody realized this before? What did the existence of a cycle of trafficking mean? After discussing with my scientific advisors, Ruben Flores and Leon Kosals, we came to discern that the highly structured form represented an institution and that it would be interesting to prove this and to understand how ST interacted with other institutions. In my research, and after speaking with some other Nigerians who are not involved in ST, I came to comprehend that ST interacts with most institutions and is a major part of society. A deep review of institutional theory and recommendations from my advisors led me to Polanyi and Granovetter, and the concept of embeddedness, which drew many parallels with what I knew of Nigerian ST, inspiring me to take an institutional approach to show its embeddedness.

Since ST had never been explained through institutions or embeddedness before, and it was also rare for any criminal or informal institution to be explained through them, I had to seek methods applied to different kinds of studies and apply what I felt best explained the phenomenon. It was Ostrom's recommendation to develop a broad theoretical framework (1990, p. 214) which gave the initial direction. Then, expanding on a framework used by North (1991, p. 108), which included an analysis of formal rules and their enforcement, religious, and informal institutions, I added the economy and the family as two important groups of institutions in Nigerian ST, producing a framework with five nodes of analysis. While institutional aspects of the family, economy, and religion could be separated into formal and informal institutions, because they have a significant effect on decision-making in Nigeria, and in ST, they warrant distinct categories.

Figure 1: Institutional Framework

The formal rules category encompasses all laws, regulations, and bureaucracy, and the enforcement of them, to capture their influence on decision-making. The economic category discusses market forces, the labor market, wages, poverty, inequality, opportunities, and remittances. The family category looks at the role families, and the type of families, play in the trafficking process, and the pre-trafficking situation. The category of religion examines the religious community and the impact that local rituals and beliefs have on ST. And, finally, the informal institutions category covers cultures, history, traditions, globalization, trust, and corruption, among others.

To analyze the interactions and dependencies between ST and the framework to acknowledge its embeddedness, I used my primary data and collected secondary data. Secondary data included institutional analyses of Nigeria with respect to formal institutional quality (Dahlberg, Holmberg, Rothstein, Khomenko, & Svensson, 2017; Kunиiи, 2014; Okoh & Ebi, 2013); informal institutions (Acemoglu, Johnson, & Robinson, 2000; Acemoglu & Robinson, 2008; Effiom & Ubi, 2013); trust (Odera, 2013); corruption (Ubi & Udah, 2014); the history of the slave trade (Nunn, 2008; Nunn & Wantchekon, 2011; Tшnnessen, 2016); and ethnic, lingual and religious fractionalization (Alesina, Devleeschauwer, Easterly, Kurlat, & Wacziarg, 2003). The specific secondary data were chosen due to their empirical assessments of relevant institutions, enhancing the credibility of my institutional analysis. I then applied direct interpretation to make a qualitative assessment of the effect of each institutional group in the facilitation or support of ST.

At the beginning of the research, I anticipated three problems. First, given the suspected trauma that people may have experienced, as well as the sensitive nature of the requested information, it could not be expected that respondents would always be honest and forthcoming. With the research focused on the embeddedness of ST, which is less sensitive in nature, this did not appear to create any problems. The only question which remained unclear was whether every respondent knew they were going to be sexually exploited. While most admitted they were coming for prostitution, others had dubious stories. However, Idahosa and Ekhikhebolo, who are also from Edo State and experienced in anti-trafficking, claim that it is common knowledge throughout the state, and virtually all of the people trafficked know that they will be sexually exploited. Furthermore, ITV News reports that a third of women in Edo State have been solicited by a trafficker (2015), meaning that it is such a commonality that it would be unlikely for the people not to know. sex trafficking nigeria institutional