Omitted return passage costs created permanent migrant communities through debt bonding.

Evidence

Opponents, who drew inspiration from the antislavery movement, argued that regulated indentured migration, even with contracts, was state-sanctioned slavery. Also, the initial act contained su≈cient ambiguity to make the potential for exploitation greater. For example, although the act specified conditions for transportation, they were fairly arbitrary and did not protect laborers from accruing debts through the commonplace practice of taking out high-interest loans with brokers and lenders. And leaving return passage out of the act, a key omission, created communities of permanent migrants in colonies because it placed the burden of paying for return transportation on workers who not only were paid meager wages but were remitting most of the money to their families in the home country. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 484

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates how an omission in contract law functions as coercion — not just what the law forbids but what it silently permits.
• XREF: Echoes the diamond-trade reading on how contract formalities (and their absences) determine extralegal exploitation; also the bonded-labor literature.