Child Labor in America - Essay Example

Traditionally, slavery has been considered as a means for promoting the interests of specific groups of the society. In the long past, slavery was considered as part of most countries’ social and economic life. The development of international law has led many people to believe that slavery would be significantly limited, a target that, even today, seems quite difficult to be achieved. In accordance with a report of 2000, the people suffered from slavery globally are estimated to 27 million (New York Times 2000).

Moreover, it has been proved that the terms of slavery have been changed. People with significant economic or social power are no more, at least not exclusively, responsible for the development of slave. People of average income are likely to force other people to slavery. At the same time, slavery is no more an issue of race; rather people of all races are forced to slavery, in various forms, a fact that proves the severe gaps of national and international laws in regard to the specific issue.

Particular emphasis should be given on child labor, which is highly developed worldwide. In USA, about 45,000 women and children are forced to non-decent jobs annually, as reported by the Central Intelligence AgencyIt seems that the promotion of slavery worldwide has supported the increase of child labor under terms which can be characterized as quite unfair and cruel, taking into consideration the fact that children who are forced to work do not have, usually, access to education, as other children worldwide.

The modern forms of slavery are analyzed in the article of Lehoczky (2000); the above researcher notes that, today, slavery is more expanded and more difficult to be controlled than in the past. At the next level, Lehoczky (2000) refers to the view of Bales who noted that today slaves exist not only in countries of the Third World, but also ‘in London and Paris’ (Lehoczky 2000). In such environment, child labor has been significantly expanded. An example of the extension of the particular phenomenon is the following one, as described by Bales, the views of whose on slavery have been incorporated in the article of Lehoczky: a North African girl was taken, as a child, by a France family, who ensured that they were going to pay for her studies, under the terms that the girl would work for them (Bales, in Lehoczky 2000).

The result was that the girl was forced to work, being also abused, at such level that when she grew up her level of consciousness was that of a child (Bales, in Lehoczky 2000). The above example shows the potential effects, and the cruelty, of child labor even in developed countries, where, normally, no such phenomena would be expected to exist. Kevin Bales, ‘a professor of sociology at Roehampton University in London’ (Vision Media 2007), has been trying, for many years, to combat slavery.

In accordance with Bales, slavery has been traditionally based on economics, meaning that people are likely to force others to slavery in order ‘to make a profit’ (Vision Media 2007). At the next level, Bales notes that the control of slavery is often quite difficult, being covered under processes which seem to be legal; an indicative example is the provision by Japan of about ‘100,000 entertainer – visas annually’ (Vision Media 2007). As a result, thousands of young girls have entered Japan, being promised that they were going to work; in practice, these girls end up in slavery (Vision Media 2007).

Specifically, regarding the child labor, Bales notes that the problem has become major not just in developing countries, but also in developed countries, even in USA where significant efforts have been made for controlling the particular phenomenon. In fact, it seems that in USA children work in the production line of well known brands, such as GAP and NIKE (Bales 1999, p.236). The expansion of child labor can be made clear