The Truth Behind the Sex Trade

While many migrants are forced into sex work, the rescue industry's moral position has hindered their own efforts to stop it, according to a new book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labor Market and the Rescue Industry.
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For quite some time, we've heard about the sex slaves -- the traffickers, the sexual bondage emerging at the border. The discovery makes free citizens sick; we feel like we must to do anything to make it stop, to uncover the beast.

But something very weird has been happening. Last month in the Washington Post, a shocking story appeared: Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence: U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short.

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When well-intended social workers and enforcement agents sought out female migrant workers with grievances, they often found people who said, "I'm desperate for papers, but I'm not doing sex work -- I'm in a different sort of bondage!"

Or, they found migrants who said, "I am doing sex work, but I'm making it worth my while, and the one way you could help me is by either getting out of my way or getting me legal documents so I make my own decision." Or, they found male prostitutes who didn't fit the feminine portrait of victimization at all, and they weren't eligible for "help," either. The problem as conceived by the policy makers was completely mismatched with the reality.

read the whole article on
AlterNet
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Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence
U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short

read the article in
The Washington Post
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Laura Agustín
Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry.
London: Zed Books.

This groundbreaking book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest.

Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy.

Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.