This chapter analyses the changing construction of trafficking as a global issue. It considers amongst other factors the first international conferences and conventions which introduced a new perspective to trafficking compared with the early twentieth century idea of "White trade", which linked it strictly to prostitution. It looks at the definitions of trafficking, their core assumptions as well as how these inform the guidelines for legislation and social intervention. The chapter also

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... es some crucial features of the debate on trafficking, both academic and political, which has taken place over the years and policy measures produced. The complexity of the issue of trafficking is also illustrated by the analysis of the biographical interviews, collected during the FeMiPol project in five European countries (Italy, Germany, France, UK, Cyprus) and undertaken with women who, either can be categorized as "trafficked", according to the existing definitions, or have lived experiences of exploitation that limited strongly their autonomy. Finally, it looks at good practices and argues for a new "holistic" approach, considering that the focus on the criminal dimensions of trafficking and a rigid dichotomy between criminals and victims, traffickers and prostitutes, cannot explain either the causes and the dynamics of the phenomenon nor the multiple collective and individual trajectories of those trafficked which have to be understood as embedded within different and specific migratory contexts.