The line between commodification and trafficking

I've been reading about human trafficking and I've had to ask myself: 'what is the difference between commodification and trafficking?' The commodification of bodies in the labor market happens at the behest of capitalism. And, it seems to me that some forms of commodification are a form of trafficking; or at least it's not immediately clear to me why it's not. Now, I understand the very real difference between human trafficking and commodification, but I'd like to make a theoretical argument about it.<br><br>Now, let's begin by defining commodification. We can do this best by employing the notion of alienation. Marx introduced this concept and argued that capitalism alienates workers by first, creating a false sense of individuality, second, through separating individuals from their work, third, by distancing workers from their humanity, and four, by creating divisions between individuals. That's the first concept we can employ to define commodification.<br><br>The second one is the notion of the *"body as a commodity/software"* argued by Braidotti. In this regard, we have a very clear and concrete example of bodies being commodified, specifically during the pandemic.<br><br>Now, let's look at human trafficking. It's human trafficking when someone forces another person to engage in behaviors that generate income through fraud, menace, or other forms of coercion. It can also mean that someone is not being compensated for their work.<br><br>So, now that we have the definition of both concepts, we can discuss them. The first question we should ask is: 'do alienated workers always choose to do the work they do?' In other words, if someone is forced to work in a certain position due to poverty, lack of opportunities, or other factors, are they truly choosing to work in that position? It doesn't seem so, at least not to me, and that's where the first issue starts.<br><br>Workers are alienated from their work because they are commodified. Now, it's not necessary for commodification to exist to have alienation, but it is a sufficient condition to have alienated workers. If workers are commodified by capitalism, are they truly choosing to work in a certain position, or are they being coerced into it? If they are being coerced into it, shouldn't that be considered a form of trafficking?<br><br>This is the main question of this post. If workers are being coerced into a certain position/field, are they being trafficked? To me, it seems so, and that's what I'd like to argue.