Migrant sex work
Migrant sex work refers to the sector of migrant workers who specifically work in the commercial sex industry. Migrant sex work is significant because of its role as a dominant demographic of commercial sex workers internationally – migrant sex workers form a significant proportion of the sex worker population. Migrant sex work shares several similarities across the globe, such as their migration from rural to urban areas or between developing to industrialized nations and the economic push and pull factors that help determine their migrant status. Migrant sex workers have also been at the center of complex discussions over the legality of sex work, the differentiation or conflation of sex work from sex trafficking, and responses from national governments and NGOs over the regulation of sex work and the provision of services for victims of sex trafficking.
Demographics and background of migrant sex workers
The illegal nature of either the migration, sex work, or both components of migrant sex work make it difficult to obtain reliable and conclusive estimates of migrant sex workers.[1] However, social scientists have conducted significant research on the identity of migrant sex workers. While migrants who work in agriculture or construction are largely male, migrants who engage in commercial sex work are largely female with ages ranging from the early teens to middle age.[2]
Migrant sex workers are diverse in terms of nationality of origin. In certain national contexts, such as in the United Arab Emirates, sex workers come from a diverse range of nations of origin, such as Russia, Nigeria, and Thailand.[3] About 60% of sex workers in large Dutch cities, for instance, are women of color from developing nations.[4] As a result, what distinguishes migrant sex workers from local sex workers are primarily their low socioeconomic status, primarily illegal immigration status, and poor language skills.[5] This results in their frequent marginalization in the unregulated and dangerous sectors of the commercial sex industry.[6]
Most migrant sex workers come from low socioeconomic backgrounds that prompts their migration and entrance into sex work.[7] Their socioeconomic backgrounds vary, with some leaving rural villages and others leaving industrial urban areas to find work in the more developed countries.[8]
Problems in data and research of migrant sex workers
Several scholars have noted the growing number of academic studies, news media coverage, and government and NGO reports on migrant sex workers, victims of sex trafficking, and the overlap between these two groups[9]. As the perception of an international sex trafficking pandemic grows, there have been a large number of attempts to count the number of individuals who engage in some sort of migration and sex work, voluntarily or coerced.[9] However, scholars and activists have oftentimes criticized the methodologies of these studies and the motivations behind them.
Conflation of sex work and sex trafficking
Because prostitution can be an extremely political topic and can represent differing political interests, the method of data collection and the use of collected data can vary in reliability.[9] While more pro-sex work academics, organizations, and activists make an explicit demarcation between sex workers and victims of sex trafficking, many other groups consider prostitution to inherently lack a voluntary component. Many anti-sex work activists consider any form of migration for the purpose of commercial sex to be a form of human trafficking. [10] As a result, depending on the definition of human trafficking by the organization or data collector, the number of either migrant sex workers or victim of sex trafficking can dramatically change depending on whether or not these two categories of individuals are conflated. Scholars, service providers, and practitioners who attempt to remain apolitical and outside the feminist debates over sex trafficking and sex work regarding prostitution still oftentimes remark how the legal definitions of human trafficking are still too vague for them to efficiently and uncontroversially define and count victims.[9] As a result, who is considered to be a migrant sex worker or victim of sex trafficking can widely vary.
Illegality of sex work
The illegal nature of either the migration, sex work, or both components of migrant sex work make it difficult to obtain reliable and conclusive estimates of migrant sex workers.[1] Scholars Guri Tyldum and Anette Brunovski call sex workers "hidden populations" which they define as "A group of individuals for whom the size and boundaries are unknown, and for whom no sampling frame exists."[9] The reasons why a sampling frame does not exist lies in the illegal and stigmatized nature of sex work. In order to protect their identity from law enforcement and family members, sex workers are oftentimes unwilling to participate in studies and surveys that may compromise their privacy and hidden identity.[9]
Diversity in migrant sex work
Migrant sex work is also incredibly diverse due to the large number of countries and migration contexts that are involved.[11]There is no statistically generalizable portrait of migrant sex workers' day-to-day lives, living and working conditions, and relationships with other sex workers, clients, or third party intermediaries. Studies are unlikely to capture the sheer diversity in migrant sex worker experiences, especially when many of them come from selective samples, such as from a sex worker service provider or even shelter for human trafficking victims.[9],As a result, many scholars caution against accepting any survey or study of sex workers as generalizable.[11]
Reasons for migration and sex work
Reasons for migration
Low economic status and harsh living conditions in migrant sex workers' home country often serve as push factors for migration to more economically advantaged nations. Vast migration between third and first world countries in response to diminishing economic prospects at home has been prevalent since economic globalization widened the income gap between developed and developing nations. [7] As a result, the number of international migrants doubled between 1960 and 2005.[12] This international migration has increasingly become feminized, with females making up 50% of all international migrants.[12]
Reasons for sex work
Migrants enter sex work for a variety of reasons. Female migrants largely migrate for jobs in the care sector, such as domestic work, childcare, and sex work, as opposed to males who engage in more physically demanding labor, such as construction and agriculture.[7] Some migrants may have originally intended to work in commercial sex while others found themselves turning to commercial sex after alternate labor means failed or proved to be less lucrative.[1] Others may engage in sex work as a result of situations involving the need to pay off debts incurred during migration or fees to a wide variety of middlemen who may help secure papers, travel passage, and places of work.[1]
For women who engage in rural to urban migration in developing nations with growing free trade zones and importation of foreign financial capital and tourism, sex work is oftentimes more lucrative than alternative forms of labor, such as working in manufacturing or in factories subcontracting to foreign corporations.[4] Women can choose to engage in commercial sex over these forms of labor, or use sex work to supplement other labor activities, such as domestic work.[4]
Legal issues
Migration and legal status
Many migrant sex workers migrate illegally or become illegal migrants after leaving previously legal statuses and jobs for sex work.[2] Their illegal status can heavily restrict their access to legal alternatives to sex work, legal sex work venues, and government-provided social services. The consequences are that migrant sex workers are unable to turn to law enforcement during sexual assaults and rapes or access services available to sex workers with appropriate legal status and citizenship. The possibility of facing deportation and anti-immigration sentiments are critical ways in which migrant sex workers are marginalized.[1]
Legality of sex work
Sex work itself has different legal status in various different national contexts around the world. In several European countries, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, sex work is legalized or decriminalized to a degree. Proponents of legalizing prostitution often argue that legalization will provide regulation and benefits to an industry that suffers from negative externalities as a direct result of its illegal status, such as the inability of sex workers to seek legal action towards violent customers or exploitative labor conditions.[13]
However, legalization of sex work does not mean all sex workers benefit from the potential benefits and regulations that occur.[13] Even in situations where sex work is decriminalized and legalized, such as in Denmark, the migrant sex worker population is oftentimes negatively affected. In the Netherlands, when sex work is legalized, the legal benefits are largely accrued only by sex workers who have citizenship.[5] For example, the ability to work in a licensed brothel is only available to sex workers of legal status and oftentimes Dutch citizenship. As a result, the largely illegal migrant sex worker population does not have access to licensed and regulated establishments and find themselves pushed into illegal and potentially dangerous sectors of sex work.[5]
Human trafficking
Some migrant sex workers find themselves in situations where elements of force, fraud, or coercion may be present. For example, Filipina hostesses who migrate to Japan must give up their legal documents to their recruiters[14]—a practice that many governments and anti-trafficking activists define as a component of human trafficking. Many migrant sex workers may start as migrant workers in other industries who turn to sex work in order to alleviate debts, such as the fees incurred during the migration process. Coercive or fraudulent migration and sex work conditions also exist. These span the spectrum from exploitation to very violent or restrictive forms of labor, the extreme forms of which are considered to be human trafficking.[13]
Whether or not human trafficking and migrant sex work should be considered the same concept has been a contentious debate among feminist activists, government officials, scholars, and religious organizations, and currently dominates much of the public discussion surrounding human trafficking and sex work.[13] Anti-prostitution activism and discourse have played a significant role in conflating migrant sex work and human trafficking. Many anti-human trafficking advocates who are also anti-prostitution have worked within the past 15 years to define any type of movement or migration for the purpose of commercial sex to be a form of sex trafficking, regardless of the presence of consent, while other pro-sex work and pro-migrant rights activists argue for less strict definitions of human trafficking in order to recognize the right of prostitutes to pursue sex work as a legitimate form of work.[10] Issues surrounding the definition of human trafficking in relation to sex work and migration situations has been a highly contentious debate and has played a prominent role in structuring how governments have responded to migrant sex workers in terms of viewing them as unwilling victims of a crime or as criminals themselves.[15]
Responses to migration and sex work
Government response
National governments have responded to migrant sex work similarly to the way they have responded to mass migration.[15] Anti-immigration sentiments have flared in many receiving countries of mass migration, such as the United States.[16] and various European countries, such as France.[17] Along with these negative sentiments are negative attitudes directed at migrants who engage in sex work, with concerns over sex work's relationship with transnational organized crime, sexually transmitted diseases, and lower moral standards.[2] States have responded by tightening their borders and deporting migrant sex workers.[15]
State response may differ based on anti-human trafficking attitudes that oftentimes prevail. Some states are sympathetic to migrant sex workers who are considered to be victims of human trafficking and not voluntary sex workers. Some governments, such as that of the United States, provide legal and health services to individuals who engage in commercial sex if these individuals are proven and officially certified by law enforcement to be victims of human trafficking.[18]
NGO response
Response from non-governmental organizations have largely been centered on anti-trafficking activism and service provision that may also include migrant sex workers. Much of NGO response to migrant sex work has been on increasing awareness of human trafficking problems. Anti-trafficking NGOs have played a role in providing health services and contraceptives.[2] Sex worker outreach organizations also exist in the areas of public and global health.[13] NGOs also largely target migrant sex workers for their high risk of attracting and passing on sexually transmitted diseases. They offer services such as providing contraception in the form of condoms, engaging sex workers in educational classes concerning sexual and other forms of physical health, and providing HIV and other STD testing.[2]
In some contexts, such as the United States, NGOs have played a role in facilitating illegal migrant access to legal status and eventually permanent residency or citizenship. However, these legal benefits are oftentimes only available for individuals who can prove their involvement in commercial sex work was involuntary and a form of human trafficking victimhood. On the other hand, some NGO-run campaigns encourage migrant sex workers to return to their nations of origin.[2]
The existence of anti-human trafficking NGOs has also been spurred by the United States Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons' Trafficking In Persons Report.[3] A prominent component of the TIP Report ranking of countries's response to human trafficking is their involvement and encouragement of civil society and non-governmental efforts at combating human trafficking.[19]
Sex worker rights NGOs
There have also been organizations that explicitly support the existence and rights of migrant sex workers,[10][20] many of which are sex worker activist groups themselves. These groups primarily argue for the recognition of sex work as a legitimate form of work or for the rights and legal status of migrant workers to exist.[3] Many of these NGOs argue for more open border and security policies that would not harm migrant sex workers and the risks that accompany illegal status. Such groups include the New Sex Worker Project, International Union of Sex Workers, and The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe.
United States influence on responses to migrant sex work
Trafficking in Persons Report
The United States Department of State exerts significant influence on the migration and human trafficking polices of foreign government through the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons releases an annual Trafficking In Persons Report that rates all countries based on their response and action regarding human trafficking within their borders.[19] Their ratings are based on whether or not a government is deemed compliant with U.S. minimum standards for response to human trafficking, which are articulated in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. According to the U.S. Department of State, countries are rated on the following standards[21]
- Tier 1 Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards.
- Tier 2 Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
- Tier 2 Watchlist Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards
- Tier 3 Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. A Tier 3 ranking can result in significant sanctions from the U.S. government, such as opposition to assistance from international financial assistance institutions and the withdrawal of non-humanitarian aid [22].
Central to the U.S. Department of State understanding and discussion of human trafficking involves the international flow of migration. According to the Department of State, "Although not all trafficking involves migration, and not all migration is human trafficking, the vulnerabilities of migrants make them a tempting target for traffickers."[21]. Countries' responses towards migrant workers' conditions of vulnerability therefore play a pivotal role in their Trafficking in Persons Report ranking. National governments respond to Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watchlist rankings and the potential consequence of sanctions in a variety of ways. These responses also differ in their effects on migrant sex workers. Many countries respond by placing more restrictive immigration standards or greater migration regulations, all for the purpose of seemingly improving state response to human trafficking risks that may accompany open borders.[3] However, the effects of these new regulations have been mixed when it comes to the actual well-being of migrant sex workers. For example, South Korea, after their Tier 3 ranking in the 2001 TIP, launched an in-depth national survey to examine the conditions of their foreign sex workers. At the head of this new effort, however, was a government minister who had previously sough to abolish prostitution. The result was a national law that outlawed the role of third-party migration intermediaries who played an important role in facilitating the migration process of women into South Korea[23].
Anti-Prostitution Pledge
In 2003, Congress under the Bush Administration announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a commitment of $15 billion over five years (2003–2008) from United States to internationally fight the HIV/AIDS. In an effort to combat human trafficking and the supposed role of sex trafficking in spreading HIV/AIDS, the legislation explicitly opposes any efforts that do not conflate prostitution and sex trafficking[24]:
- "No funds [...] may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking."
- "No funds [...] may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking."
- nothing in the anti-prostitution clause "shall be construed to preclude" services to prostitutes, including testing, care and prevention services, including condoms.
Within PEPFAR lies the controversial anti-prostitution pledge, a pledge NGOs and governments, with few exceptions, must sign declaring their opposition to prostitution or service provision to prostitutes. This pledge has been heavily criticized by NGOs working to fight HIV/AIDS, sex worker rights activists and organizations, and even national governments who feel a declaration of opposition towards prostitution would be counterproductive to eliminating HIV/AIDS [13][25]. This pledge and its requirement of opposition to prostitution has affected the funding of many organizations working explicitly with migrant sex workers by eliminating many of their social services and increasing their risk of abuse and limited mobility.[26]
Case studies
European Union
Several countries in the European Union are attractive countries for migrants, especially migrants who engage in sex work. European countries such as Spain have migrants form up to 90% of their sex worker population,[27] with these migrants originating from a wide variety of nations in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. European nations' developed economies make them attractive end locations for migration.
Countries within the European Union have varied legal statuses for prostitution and sex work. In Sweden, the purchase of sex is criminalized, but not the act of selling it. In the Netherlands, sex work goes beyond decriminalization and is actually legalized and regulated by the government. However, neither of these models have eliminated the dangers of sex work for vulnerable groups that engage in sex work, such as migrants and those who are extremely socioeconomically disadvantaged.[5][13] Criminalization of buyers of sex work has created more dangerous situations for individuals who continue to engage in commercial sex. Oftentimes, they can no longer conduct transactions in public spaces because their clients fear arrest and legal action. As a result, sex work is less susceptible to outreach, and migrants who fear legal repercussions themselves for their legal statuses are unwilling to be involved in situations that may involve law enforcement.[13] In the Netherlands and other nations where sex work is legal, these legal benefits and reduction of risk are not available to migrant sex workers who are largely illegal.[5]
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates's geographic location makes it an important stepping stone for migrants from the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia who wish to eventually work in Europe or the United States.[3] The UAE's economic boom and aggressive development in the early to mid 2000s made its dependence on migrant labor extremely high. Along with demand for migrant laborers in construction was also the demand for migrant sex workers. Because of the diversity in the demographics of individuals who lived and worked in developing urban areas such as Dubai, there is also a highly diverse and stratified commercial sex industry that caters to these diversities in background, income, and class.[3] For example, the spectrum of sex worker diversity ranges from migrants from Nigeria, Iran, Philippines, and Russia, with their skin tone corresponding to the price they command and the male clientele they see - the lighter the sex worker's skin color, the more Western the clientele and the higher the price. As a result, the UAE's migrant sex worker population is highly diverse and burgeoning. In response to the UAE's large migrant sex worker population were anti-human trafficking efforts and sentiments in the form of local NGOs and foreign presence through the Trafficking In Persons Report .
See also
- Human migration
- Feminization of migration
- Globalization
- Migrant worker
- Prostitution
- Human trafficking
- Laura María Agustín
References
- ^ a b c d e Augustin, Laura. 2006. “The Disappearing of a Category: Migrants Who Sell Sex.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32(1):29-47.
- ^ a b c d e f Agustín, Laura. 2007. Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. London: Zed Books.
- ^ a b c d e f Mahdavi, Pardis. 2011. Gridlock: Labor, Migration, and Human Trafficking in Dubai. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- ^ a b c Kempadoo, Kamala. 2001. “Women of Color and the Global Sex Trade: Transnational Feminist Perspectives.” Meridians 1(2):28-51.
- ^ a b c d e Bernstein, Elizabeth. 2007. Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Davidson, Julia O'Connell. 2005. Children in the Global Sex Trade. London: Polity Press.
- ^ a b c Ehrenreich, Barbara and Hochschild, Arlie. 2004. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy.
- ^ Zheng, Tiantian. 2009. Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tyldum, Guri and Anette Brunovskis. JH. 2005. "Human Trafficking in East Asia: Current Trends, Data Collection, and Knowledge Gaps." Pp 165-202 in Data and research on human trafficking: A global survey edited by Laczko, Frank and Gozdziak, Elzbieta. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
- ^ a b c Doezema, Jo. 2002. “Who Gets to Choose?: Coercion, Consent, and the UN Trafficking Protocol.” Gender and Development 10(1):20-27.
- ^ a b Brennan, Denise. 2005. “Methodological Challenges in Research with Trafficked Persons: Tales from the Field.” International Migration 43:35-54.
- ^ a b Morrison, Andrew R., Maurice Schiff, and Mirja Sjoblom, eds. 2008. The International Migration of Women. The World Bank.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Chuang, Janie. 2010. "Rescuing Trafficking from Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy.” 158 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1655.
- ^ Parrenas, Rhacel. 2011. Illicit Flirtations. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
- ^ a b c Altman, Dennis. 2001. Global Sex. Chicago: The University of Chicago.
- ^ Schrag, Peter. 2010. Not Fit For Our Society. University of California Press: Berkeley
- ^ World Economic Forum. 2012. "What If Rich Countries Shut the Door on Immigration?" Time, September 20
- ^ Semple, Kirk. 2012. "Young Immigrants, Seeking Deferred Action Help, Find Unexpected Path." New York Times, March 22.
- ^ a b Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. 2012. "Trafficking in Persons Report." U.S. Department of State.
- ^ Kempadoo, Kamala. 1998. "Globalizing Sex Workers' Rights." Canadian Woman Studies 22:143-150.
- ^ a b http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192363.htm
- ^ http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/164221.htm
- ^ Lee, June JH. 2005. "Human Trafficking in East Asia: Current Trends, Data Collection, and Knowledge Gaps." Pp 165-202 in Data and research on human trafficking: A global survey edited by Laczko, Frank and Gozdziak, Elzbieta. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
- ^ US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 HR 1298. 22 U.S.C. §§ 7601-7682. 108th Congress. Retrieved 21 April 2012
- ^ Phillips, Michael M. 2005. "Brazil Refuses U.S. AIDS Funds, Rejects Conditions" in The Wall Street Journal May 2.
- ^ Busza, Joanna. 2006. "Having the rug pulled from under your feet: one project’s experience of the US policy reversal on sex work."Health Policy Plan 21(4): 329-332.
- ^ TAMPEP international Foundation. 2009. “Sex Work in Europe.” European Network for HIV/STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers.