Andreea Diana Pop

Human trafficking, sex work, migration studies, Civil Society Organisations 

Currently conducting a PhD research investigating the ways Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) represent migrants who are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and sex workers. Two types of CSOs are examined: 1) those lobbying for the abolition of prostitution (neo-abolitionists), and 2) those advocating to decriminalise sex work in Italy and the UK (sex work decriminalisation).  The research focuses on the period since Europe’s migrant crisis (2015). CSOs’ discourses and narratives on human trafficking and sex work are analysed using an intersectional approach that combines gender, race, sexuality, and migration.

Both neo-abolitionist and sex work decriminalisation CSOs are active in constructing, challenging, and negotiating representations of trafficked people and sex workers. This study analyses how representations and rights are interlinked as part of a cohesive discourse to reinforce their respective ideological positions, and to lobby for specific legal and political changes. CSOs provide an opportunity to explore this relationship in new ways by interrogating how their positions relate to migration policies and how they understand migration in relation to human trafficking and sex work in comparative perspective, in Italy and the UK.

These objectives will be achieved through a qualitative methodological approach including discourse analysis, visual methods, archival research, and interview methods. This project contributes to a deeper understanding of how representations and rights influence CSOs’ work, services, and funding, and how they set up ideological and political agendas, values, positions, and lobbying activities cross nationally.

Previously, worked in international development as bid writer for a M&E consulting firm; carried out an internship at the European Commission within the Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion; and employed at NGO Emergency in the field operations in Italy supporting victims of human trafficking and sex workers.

Double Erasmus Mundus Master's degree in Transnational migrations from KU Leuven and University of Lille with 1-year exchange program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil conducting fieldwork research on urban sociology.

Civil Society Organisations’ representations of migrant trafficked people and sex workers in Italy and the UK

This research will address the following questions:

• How are neo-abolitionist and pro-sex work decriminalisation CSOs framing their understanding of migration in the context of human trafficking, and sex work, and their link?
• How do CSOs interpret and prioritise rights, specifically women’s rights, human rights of sex workers, labour rights, and migrants’ rights? Who do they consider as subjects of rights?
• How are CSOs representations of migrant trafficked people and sex workers constructed, promoted, and challenged in Italy and the UK since Europe’s migrants crisis (2015)?

Double Research Master’s in Transnational Migrations from KU Leuven University (Belgium) and Charles de Gaulle Lille University (France).

Dissertation research project (defended in July 2016) 

Community gardens in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

This research inquired about the dynamics of community gardens as spaces of food security and education, of individual and groupal empowerment and of local and sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro's favelas and neighbourhoods.

From an anthropological point of view, I researced how and why urban agriculture represented a valid tool when facing urban poverty, inequality, social exclusion, polution and food insecurity.

The fieldwork focussed on a regional government project which has social and economic goals: throughout social entrepreneurship, it aimed at facing social necessities.

Key words: community gardens, favelas, food security, empowerment, sustainability.