Trafficking in persons involves the movement of persons from one place to another by variety of means and for a variety of exploitative purposes. In an age of globalization and transnationalism, demand for cheap labor and services fuels a trade deeply rooted in different cultural and historical contexts. Human traffickers share those roots with their respective diasporas the world over. This paper examines the case for both an empirical investigation and a gender sensitive analysis of the connections between crime networks engaged in international human trafficking and their respective diasporas in countries of transit and destination. A proposed typology hypothesizes four possible primary diasporic intersections with trafficking groups: (1) integrate diasporic model; (2) partially integrated diasporic model; (3) instrumental diasporic model; and (4) fully open model. This typology is proposed to assist research into, and analysis of, the extent to which, and how, diasporas may play a part in the processes that constitute the cross-border trade in human beings. References