The Disappearing of a Migration Category: Migrants Who Sell Sex
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13691830500335325
ISSN1469-9451
Autores Tópico(s)Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
ResumoAbstract Migrant women selling sex are generally neglected by migration and diaspora studies. The moral panic on 'trafficking', a prolonged debate within feminism on commercial sex and some activists' attempts to conflate the concept of 'prostitution' with 'trafficking' combine to shift study of these migrants to domains of criminology and feminism, with the result that large numbers of women's migrations are little known. This article reveals the silences at work and where the attention goes, and theorises that the shift from conventional study to moral outrage facilitates the avoidance of uncomfortable truths for Western societies: their enormous demand for sexual services and the fact that many women do not mind or prefer this occupation to others available to them. Keywords: MigrationSexProstitutionTraffickingDiaspora Notes 1. Migrants selling sex often mention that they also do domestic labour, either as a second job or as part of the first. 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See note 3, above, for the relevant literature. 7. Liz Kelly's concept of a continuum of sexual violence emphasised that sexual violence exists in most women's lives, and that variation is only found in the form the violence takes, the way in which women define the violent events, and the impact the events have on them immediately and over time (Kelly 1988 Kelly, L. 1988. Surviving Sexual Violence, Cambridge: Polity. [Google Scholar]: 48). Additional informationNotes on contributorsLaura AgustínLaura Agustín is Research Associate in the Department of Geography at the University of Loughborough
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