I’m currently reviewing Laura Agustín’s recent book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry (Zed, 2007) for the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. In it she argues that migrants who sell sex are not passive victims but resourceful individuals who make rational choices, and that those who set out to help them are not devoid of self-interest and can reproduce the marginalisation they condemn.
More of Agustín’s writing can be found at http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin/.
4 responses so far ↓
Laura Agustin // March 24, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
hello alison
i always find out late when people comment on me, my book or my blog. anyway i just wanted to clarify that the ‘myth’ term didn’t come from me but from more than one journalist. i don’t personally think it’s the right word. but i’ll be interested to hear what you think.
best wishes, laura
alisonphipps // March 25, 2009 at 8:12 am |
Hi Laura – good to hear from you. I enjoyed your book – I think you’ve got a lot to say to the academic community, and academic feminists in particular. We come from very different perspectives on the issue of sex work, but I’ll be using your material with my students and in my research. I’m sure you’ll get an Email when the review comes out, as I think it was one you requested.
All the best,
Alison
Laura Agustin // March 25, 2009 at 10:19 am |
Thanks, Alison. There have been many reviews of my book but I look forward to yours. I put Don Kulick’s on my blog recently, and there I am engaging directly in trying to understand the idea of Gender Equality and how we’ve arrived at a place where so many women would have and even desire a Victim identity. Please stop by!
Laura
Border Thinking http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin
Jeff Lewis // October 26, 2009 at 11:02 pm |
The problems I see with the sex traffic idea is that suppose some of the women were not forced into this type of prostitution, but were willing and wanted to do this type of work, and went out of their way to do this type of work. (It is a lot of fast easy money, they don’t need a degree, or a green card.) All they have to do is lie and say that someone forced them into it. When perhaps, no one did.
If they lie here are their benefits based on the new anti-traffic laws:
1. They don’t have to go to jail or be arrested.
2. They get to stay and live in America for an indefinite amount of time.
3. The U.S. Government will provide them with housing, food, education and will cater to them since they will be considered victims.
The way I see it is that this system will encourage people to lie in order to receive all the benefits listed above.
Everything I heard about this problem was Americans complaining about it, but I never heard from the so-called victims themselves complaining about it. Why is that? Many of the self appointed experts complaining about this have never even met or seen a real victim. They make up a large figure out of thin air that 2 million or more women and children become sex slaves each year. They have been saying this for over 15 years so this means that 15 X 2, 000,000 equals 30,000,000 yet no one can find all these women and children. They have no evidence to back up these numbers, and no one questions them about it. Their sources have no sources, and are made up numbers.
A key point is that on the sidelines of a debate which has been dominated by ideology, a chorus of alarm from the prostitutes themselves is singing out virtually unheard. They oppose laws against prostitution. But no one wants to listen to the prostitutites themsleves. Only to the self appointed experts that make up numbers and stories.
It is very difficult to force someone to be a slave, they would have to have 24 hour guards posted and be watched 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Have the threat of violence if they refused, and have no one notice and complain to the authorities.
What hard evidence does the police have that these women were forced slaves? Were all the women that the police saw in fact slaves? Did the police prove without a doubt due to hard concrete evidence that the women were victims of being slaves and forced against their will? Did they account for all the benefits they would receive if they lied?
I find it very hard to believe that most women in this business are forced against their will to do it. It would just be too difficult. There may be some exceptions but, I believe this is an attempt to over inflate an issue in order to get more government money to fight this cause. As a tax payer, voter, and resident I don’t want the government to mislead me.
The following links will give your more information about this
Washington post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401.html
Human traffic website:
http://traffickingwatch.org/node/18
Guardian newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/government-trafficking-enquiry-fails
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/trafficking-numbers-women-exaggerated