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70 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 475 (2002)
To Honor and Obey: Trafficking in Mail-Order Brides

handle is hein.journals/gwlr70 and id is 487 raw text is: To Honor and Obey: Trafficking in Mail-Order Brides Suzanne H. Jackson* Introduction Worldwide, women are on the move. Migrating at unprecedented rates, women are leaving their countries of origin for employment opportunities, to join family members abroad, or to marry.' The funds these migrants send home strengthen their countries' economies by increasing domestic purchas- ing power and foreign exchange.2 Those who remain abroad may later bring their family to join them.3 Such travel can be culturally and personally en- riching-benefits that for many outweigh the difficulties inherent in separa- tion from family, friends and community. For many, however, travel is imperative. For whatever reasons-economic, political, or social-they mi- grate because they must; no viable alternative exists. Migrants, regardless of their reason for travel, may be vulnerable to ex- ploitation. A significant minority is severely harmed.4 Far from community and family; isolated by language; discriminated against because of race, gen- der, class, or immigrant status; if exploited they may have nowhere to turn.5 The rule of law can be a double-edged sword: police are as likely to make a situation worse as better. For those without immigration documentation, safe recourse to courts or other law enforcement authorities may be impossi- ble. Women migrants are too often subjected to physical and sexual abuse, as * Associate Professor of Clinical Law, The George Washington University Law School. Many thanks to law clinic colleagues at the University of Baltimore School of Law and Ameri- can University's Washington College of Law; suggestions and encouragement from Ann Shal- leek, Rick Wilson, Walter Effross, Lucinda Peach, Wendy Patten, Tammy Horne, and the Baltimore-Washington Feminist Law Professors' reading group; and able assistance from re- search assistants Bradley Bessire, Regan Alberda, and Brandy Carter. 1 Shu-Ju Ada Cheng, Labor Migration and International Sexual Division of Labor: A Feminist Perspective in GENDER AND IMMIGRATION 38-39, 44-48 (Gregory A. Kelson & Debra L. DeLaet eds., 1999); Joan Fitzpatrick & Katrina R. Kelly, Gendered Aspects of Migration: Law and the Female Migrant, 22 HASTINGS INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 47, 58-59 (1998); Marion F. Hous- toun et al., Female Predominance in Immigration to the United States Since 1930: A First Look, 18 INT'L MIGRATION REV. 908 (1984); U.S. Dep't of Justice, INS, Legal Immigration, Fiscal Year 1998, (July 1999), available at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/newsrels/98Le- gal.pdf (showing female predominance among immigrants to the U.S. from 1995 to 1998); see also Jennifer P. Harris, Refugee Women: Failing to Implement Solutions, 7 HuM. RTS. BRIEF, SPRING 2000, at 30 (stating that women and children constitute eighty percent of refugees). 2 See Seth Mydans, 25 Years Later, Vietnamese Still Flock to the United States, N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 7, 2000, at Al, A14. 3 Id. 4 See generally Kristof Van Impe, People for Sale: The Need for a Multidisciplinary Ap- proach Towards Human Trafficking, INT'L MIGRATION REV., Spring 2000, at113. 5 See Leslye Orloff, Lifesaving Welfare Safety Net Access for Battered Immigrant Women and Children: Accomplishments and Next Steps, 7 WM. & MARY J. WOMEN & L. 597, 604 (2001). June 2002 Vol. 70 No. 3

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