“Right Here is the Gateway”: Mobility,Sex Work Entry and HIV Risk along the Mexico–US Border

Women comprise an increasing proportion of migrants. Many migrate voluntarily for sex work or practise survival sex; others are trafficked for sexual exploitation. To investigate how the context of mobility shapes sex work entry and HIV risk, during 2010 to 2011 we conducted in‐depth interviews with formerly trafficked women currently engaged in sex work (n = 31) in Tijuana and their service providers (n = 7) in Tijuana and San Diego. Women's experiences of coerced and deceptive migration, deportation as forced migration, voluntary mobility, and migration to a risk environment illustrate that circumstances resulting from migration shape vulnerability to sex trafficking, voluntary sex work entry, and HIV risk. Findings suggest an urgent need for public health and immigration policies providing integrated support for deported and/or recently arrived female migrants. Policies to prevent sex trafficking and assist trafficked females must consider the varying levels of personal agency involved in migration and sex work entry.

Policy Implications

• There is a need for coordination between public health and immigration policies to ensure that these are not at odds with one another
• Findings suggest the need for public health and immigration policies that provide integrated support for female migrants, especially trafficked women and girls
• Policy changes are urgently needed to protect deportees' health and promote their social integration
• Policies to prevent sex trafficking and assist trafficked females must consider the range of agencies involved in migration and sex work entry

     

Turkey's Response to Sex Trafficking of Migrant Women: Is It Efficient Enough?

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is a serious problem affecting especially women and children. Turkey has been particularly affected by sex trafficking because of the large numbers of female migrants that it receives. This article aims to critically assess the effectiveness of Turkey's current policies against sex trafficking using a feminist theoretical perspective with a particular focus on migrant women. To this end, the scope of the problem in Turkey, the supply and demand sides of sex trafficking, and the existing policies are discussed. Sex trafficking is examined at the intersection of Turkey's migration and prostitution regimes. It is argued that Turkey's response to sex trafficking has been inefficient because it currently focuses only on the economic supply side of the problem, ignoring the patriarchal demand side of it. The article concludes with a discussion of policy recommendations for Turkey that could help reduce sex trafficking in this country.     

Prostitution Ideology and Trafficking Policy: The Impact of Political Approaches to Domestic Sex Work on Human Trafficking Policy in Australia and the United States

Debates over the legitimacy and legality of prostitution have characterized human trafficking discourse for the last two decades. This article identifies the extent to which competing perspectives concerning the legitimacy of prostitution have influenced anti-trafficking policy in Australia and the United States and argues that each nation-state’s approach to domestic sex work has influenced trafficking legislation. The legal status of prostitution in each country and feminist influences on prostitution law reform have had a significant impact on the nature of the legislation adopted.     

Dancing Across Borders: ‘Exotic Dancers,’ Trafficking,and Canadian Immigration Policy

This article analyzes a Canadian immigration program that authorizes issuance of temporary work visas to ‘exotic dancers.’ In response to public criticism that the government was thereby implicated in the transnational trafficking of women into sexual exploitation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada retained the visa program de jure but eliminated it de facto. Using a legal and discursive analysis that focuses on the production of female labor migrants variously as workers, as criminals and as bearers of human rights, the article argues that the incoherence of Canadian policy can only be rendered intelligible when refracted through these different lenses. The article concludes by considering policy options available to the state in addressing the issue.     

Ethical tensions of migrants in the informal economy in the Global South

Considering the ongoing, record-setting migration in the Global South, this paper explores the values, principles and ethical tensions of Venezuelan migrants in the informal economy of Colombia. We found that migrants frequently prefer to stay within the informal economy as a way of preserving their identities, values and principles, rather than adopting those of their new country. This choice sets up ethical tensions for the migrants and their host countries. Our analysis challenges the current policy goals of transitioning migrants from informal to formal economies as a mark of success and inclusion. Instead, we attempt to recognize the migrant voice and their agency capacity through our research using focus groups and applied thematic analysis (ATA) of popular music and narratives. Our findings broaden the understanding of why migrants choose to stay in the informal economy and challenge policy goals that focus on inclusion and integration of migrants into formal economy.     

Migration,the Urban Informal Sector,and Earnings in the Philippines*

This study investigates several issues pertaining to the urban informal sector and cityward migration in Philippine cities. The analysis of cross-sectional national demographic data reveals the four major patterns. First, the pattern of migrants' participation in the urban labor market varies greatly between male and female migrants. The widely held notion that migrants tend to enter the urban occupational structure through the informal sector seems to apply mainly to female migrants. Second, the informal sector must not be identified with urban poverty. Our data suggest that informal economies provide a wide range of income opportunities and that there is a great deal of overlap between formal- and informal-sector workers' incomes. Third, the effects of rural background and informal sector involvement seem to vary between Manila and the secondary cities. Fourth, sectoral boundaries do not seem to constitute a significant mobility barrier, but, due to the general lack of occupational mobility opportunities in Philippine cities, only a small proportion of those working in the informal sector are likely, to move out of it.     

Trafficking and Human Smuggling: A European Perspective

The article reviews the empirical evidence for trafficking and human smuggling in Europe. It argues that a market for irregular migration services has emerged, in which the mechanisms and forms of organization are still relatively unknown. Irregular migrants using these services are exposed both to unscrupulous service providers and to the immigration and policing authorities, thereby generating a dependence on safeguards provided by the trafficking networks. Thus a symbiosis has developed between trafficker and trafficked. The enormous interest and concern for trafficking and human smuggling in governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, in the media and popular opinion, is running ahead of theoretical understanding and factual evidence. This has implications for policy measures designed to combat trafficking and human smuggling, which may not work and also have unintended side effects. The article begins with a discussion of the main conceptual and definitional issues confronting researchers and politicians. This is followed by an assessment of the main theoretical approaches that have been developed and an evaluation of current statistical knowledge. Information on the organizational structure of trafficking organizations is then reviewed, followed by a summary of the characteristics of migrants involved, based on empirical studies that have been carried out. The article concludes by indicating some of the main research priorities.     

Gendered Global Migrations

The globalization of migration has entailed a greater diversity and stratification of migration. Integrative approaches, such as transnationalism, structurationism and alternative circuits of globalization, have helped to place migration in broader socio- cultural fields but have not adequately addressed the complex gendered stratification generated in countries of origin and destination. Much literature focuses on the socio-economically disadvantaged, especially those undertaking domestic and sex work, but the opening up of skilled migration in developed countries, increasingly in feminized welfare sectors, is creating new lines of exclusion and inclusion and privileging the skilled and educated of the Third World. It also means that a neat division between the masculine high-tech sector and the feminine intimate, racialized and menial 'other' does not do justice to the complexity of gendered migratory flows. This article explores diverse forms of female migrations, labour market positions and the intersection of class, racialization and gender. I argue that we need to question the relegation of female migrants to the subordinate circuits of globalization and to extend our analysis beyond productive and reproductive labour in less skilled sectors. The inclusion of female skilled migrants can add a distinctive counter narrative, which includes care for and education of people, to our conceptualization of a knowledge economy and society, which tends to be based on scientific and technological sectors.     

Empowering,invasive or a little bit of both? A reflection on the use of visual and narrative methods in research with migrant sex workers in South Africa

Although migration plays a critical role in the economic landscape of the world, government officials and researchers do not sufficiently include migration and/or migrants in research studies and development policies. In South Africa, many migrants – both internal and cross-border – engage in informal livelihood strategies, including sex work (see Richter et al. 2012). Currently, the bulk of research that is being conducted in South Africa in the areas of migration and sex work rely heavily on the use of traditional research approaches and focus mainly on concerns surrounding issues of public health, with increased attention to HIV (for example, see SANAC 2013; Scheibe, Drame and Shannon 2012; Scorgie et al. 2011). While this work is invaluable, there is a need for research that can counter the stigma that sex workers overwhelmingly face in light of HIV/AIDS. Participatory visual and narrative research approaches – as part of mixed method study designs – that examine the lived experiences of migrant sex workers can provide important insights that ‘move beyond the polarized and simplistic arguments that have circulated in South African about migrant sex workers’ (Nyangairi and Palmary, 2014, 132). This methodological approach makes important and necessary contributions to national and international discourses on migration and sex work (see Oliveira and Vearey 2015). In addition, these methods provide a unique platform where the normative discourses that portray migrants as a homogenous vulnerable and apolitical group of people can be contested (Palmary 2006). In this article, I present and discuss three participatory visual and narrative research projects that have been conducted with migrant men, women and transgender persons who sell sex in two Provinces of South Africa and examine the suitability of these approaches.     

Victim or Whore: The Similarities and Differences between Victim's Experiences of Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking

This research review addresses the similarities and differences between domestic violence and sex trafficking victimization. While there is evidence that domestic violence and sex trafficking often co-occur, there is a large disparity in the understanding and interventions utilized by law enforcement as well as the services available for victims of each crime despite the considerable overlap of victimization. This article explores current research regarding domestic violence and sex trafficking with a focus towards identifying areas of overlap and areas distinct to sex trafficking.     

Migrant Membership as an Instituted Process: Transnationalization,the State and The Extra‐Territorial Conduct of Mexican Politics1

How should we conceptualize membership, citizenship and political community in a world where migrants and their home states increasingly maintain and cultivate their formal and informal ties? This study analyzes the extra‐territorial conduct of Mexican. politics and the emergence of new migrant membership practices and relations between migrants and home states. Standard globalist, transnationalist or citizenship theories cannot properly contextualize and analyze such practices. I propose that we rethink the concept of membership in a political community not only as a Marshallian status granted by states, but also as an instituted process embedded within four other institutions and processes: home state domestic politics; the home state's relationship to the world system; a semi‐autonomous transnational civil society created in part by migration; and the context of reception of migrants in the United States. A main conclusion is that the state itself plays a key role in creating transnational political action by migrants and new migrant membership practices. The article draws on printed sources and interviews and ethnography done since 1990.     

New slavery,old binaries: human trafficking and the borders of ‘freedom’

This article explores dominant discourse on ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ in relation to the many legal and social fetters that have historically been and are today imposed upon individuals who are socially imagined as ‘free’. It argues that discourse on ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ revitalizes the liberal understandings of freedom and restriction that have historically allowed vigorous moral condemnation of slavery to coexist with the continued imposition of extensive, forcible restrictions on individuals deemed to be ‘free’. In place of efforts to build political alliances between different groups of migrants, as well as between migrants and non‐migrants, who share a common interest in transforming existing social and political relations, ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ discourse inspires and legitimates efforts to divide a small number of ‘deserving victims’ from the masses that remain ‘undeserving’ of rights and freedoms.     

From Exploitation to Industry: Definitions,Risks, and Consequences of Domestic Sexual Exploitation and Sex Work Among Women and Girls

In the last 15 years, terms such as prostitution, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, modern-day slavery, and sex work have elicited much confusion and debate as to their definitions. Consequently several challenges have emerged for both law enforcement in the prosecution of criminals and practitioners in service provision. This article reviews the state of the literature with regard to domestic, sexual exploitation among women and girls in the United States and seeks to (1) provide definitions and describe the complexity of all terms relating to domestic sexual exploitation of women and girls in the United States, (2) explore available national prevalence data according to the definitions provided, and (3) review the evidence of mental health, social, and structural risk factors at the micro-, mezzo-, and macrolevels.     

Working "Off the Books": Patterns of Informal Market Participation within New York's East Village

Most research on the informal economy concentrates on how the informal economy operates at the international and regional levels along with the formal economy and the state. This article departs from current research on the informal economy by looking at how the informal economy operates within the lives of its participants. It considers how informal workers use informal work as both an economic and an identity resource. Informal workers create informal careers and informal work environments in accordance with financial and identity goals and needs. The intersection of informal work as an identity resource and as an economic resource creates a typology of informal market participation types. Among a group of self-employed workers in New York City's East Village neighborhood, four patterns of informal market participation emerge: Entrepreneur, Occupier, Avocationalist, and Allowance Seeker.     

Luanda – Holanda: Irregular Migration from Angola to the Netherlands

Against the backdrop of push‐pull and social network theories on migration and criminological theory on human smuggling, this article tries to answer the questions of why and how Angolan asylum‐seekers migrated to the Netherlands since the end of the 1990s. The study shows that the migrants can be described as opportunity seeking migrants, rather than survival migrants. Most migrants made no use of typical human smugglers during their travel. They rather used assistance from their social network and made use of the services of middlemen, called esquemas, on an ad‐hoc basis. In this article it is argued that “archetypal” large smuggling organisations in Angola have not evolved because of the existence of these highly informal networks. Support is found that both push‐pull and social network theories can contribute to explaining irregular, asylum migration.     

Anti-Sex Trafficking Institutions

Many anti-sex trafficking analyses use the term institution in a narrow meaning, comprising mainly formal-legal political structures (public laws and governmental organizations). However, by bringing in the new institutionalism approach, it is argued that an anti-sex trafficking institution should refer to a relatively enduring collection of rules – including also informal rules such as norms and routines – and organized practices that prescribe appropriate behaviour for any actor, public or private, combating sex trafficking. Based on a review of current research it is concluded that anti-sex trafficking institutions in the early 21st century tend to focus on behaviour that aims at detection, prevention, protection, crisis management, consequence management, and response. Finally, reflecting different strands of the new institutionalism approach, it is argued that the design of anti-sex trafficking institutions depends on path-dependencies, social constructions, international institutions, and domestic politics.     

Work,Refuge, Transit: An Emerging Pattern of Irregular Immigration South and East of the Mediterranean

Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEM) countries have recently turned into receivers of migrants, but they have neither the institutions nor the policies that would allow them to integrate migrants. Therefore, most migrants in SEM countries found themselves in irregular situation. Using a variety of statistical sources, official and non‐official, the article establishes that out of 5.6 million immigrants living in SEM countries in the mid‐2000s, a minimum of 3.6 would be in irregular situation. They belong to three categories: approximately 2 million migrant workers attracted by SEM labour markets where they are employed in the informal sector with no work permit, 1.5 million de facto refugees who cannot obtain the status of refugee and are waiting for resettlement in a third country or return to their homes, and less than 200,000 transit migrants initially bound for Europe, which they are unable to reach for lack of visa. While their reasons to be stranded in the SEM differ, these three categories share the same vulnerable conditions, with no legal access to work, services, or protection.     

Human smuggling in Austria: a comparative analysis of data on smuggled migrants from former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation

This article provides a summary of the author’s research on human smuggling in Austria comparing migrants from Former Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation. The project’s primary intent was to collect more detailed information on migrants seeking asylum in Austria and their use of smuggling services to leave their home countries, including detailed information on demographics, force or threat of force by smugglers, routes and methods of transportation, costs of smuggling, payment methods, and deeper perceptual questions regarding the flight. Another central premise of the article discusses how current distinctions between human smuggling and human trafficking are arbitrary in many regards.     

Beyond Heroes and Victims: Filipina Contract Migrants,Economic Activism and Class Transformations

This article employs anti-essentialist Marxist analysis to shed light on the diverse economic activities that Filipina contract migrants are engaged in at home and overseas. We point to the limitations of dominant representations of these women as 'heroes' of national development or 'victims' of a global capitalist economy, which tend to foreclose a discussion of multiple class processes engendered by transnational labour migration. In drawing on a fluid theory of class, we investigate how contract domestic workers are involved in multiple class processes that allow them to produce, appropriate and distribute surplus labour in innovative ways. We also discuss the activities of the Asian Migrant Centre, a non-governmental organization working with domestic workers in Hong Kong, whose efforts to inspire the entrepreneurial aspirations of these women reflect the importance of recognizing migrant workers' multiple economic identities. This analysis has implications for how we imagine the agency of contract workers, as well as the performativity of research and advocacy work.     

‘Knowing one's place’: gender,mobility and shifting subjectivity in Eastern Indonesia

Abstract In this article I analyse the gendered space of transnational mobility by problematizing migrant subjectivity in everyday practices. In line with feminist perspectives I highlight the significance of the micro‐scale experience of female migrants from Eastern Indonesia in acquiring mobility as a struggle for new subjectivity. I frame this migration as a production of the subjective space of power. Based on in‐depth interviews with returned migrants, I present reflexive accounts of two migrants on contract domestic work abroad to illuminate the changing contours of the relationships between gender, mobility and shifting subjectivity. Households take into account the cultural meanings of space in everyday life including local relations in the decisions on mobility. Strategies of ‘knowing one's place’ reflect women's agency in negotiating alternative roles and positions within the intra‐household dynamics and in the workplace. Women's personal accounts have the potential to illuminate spatial processes of migration as a contested space for the repositioning of self in networks of family, kin, local and global relations.