Since the adoption of the UN Trafficking Protocol, most of the efforts dedicated to eliminating exploitation of migrant workers have focused on human trafficking. Yet, there is limited evidence to show that this approach has been effective at reducing the scale or severity of abuses they experience. This article presents the case for increasing attention to a range of labour rights abuses falling under the category of wage theft. It considers the opportunities to shift the strategy for responding to exploitation, addressing the underlying pecuniary issues as a chief priority rather than as a matter of secondary concern. The analysis concludes that expanding engagement with the more ‘mundane’ vulnerabilities to abuse is essential to developing a pragmatic approach that enables migrants themselves to identify and denounce abuses. Interventions to prevent and remediate wage theft would contribute to better working conditions for the vast missing middle who experience more commonplace forms of abuse and help to diminish the enabling environment for severe exploitation to occur. Ensuring a more equitable distribution of wages would also redirect attention to a core issue at stake in the era of globalisation—the expansion of economic and social justice for migrant workers.

中文翻译：

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基本动机：更多地关注针对农民工的工资盗窃案

自通过《联合国人口贩运议定书》以来，致力于消除对移徙工人的剥削的大部分努力都集中在人口贩运上。但是，仅有有限的证据表明，这种方法已有效地减少了他们所遭受的虐待的规模或严重性。本文介绍了越来越多地关注属于盗窃工资类别的一系列侵犯劳工权利的情况。它认为有机会改变应对剥削的战略，把解决潜在的金钱问题作为首要任务而不是次要问题。分析得出的结论是，扩大对更普遍的虐待行为的参与对于开发一种务实的方法至关重要，该方法使移民自己能够识别和谴责虐待行为。预防和补救工资盗窃的干预措施将为广大失踪的中间人提供更好的工作条件，这些中间人遭受更普遍的虐待，并有助于减少有利于发生严重剥削的环境。确保更公平的工资分配还将把注意力转移到全球化时代紧要关头的核心问题上，即为移民工人扩大经济和社会正义。