Sex Work, Immigration and Social Difference

Description

Public discourses around migrant sex workers are often more confident about what migrant sex workers signify morally but are less clear about who the ‘migrant’ is. Based on interviews with immigrant, migrant and racialized sex workers in Vancouver, Canada and Melbourne, Australia, Sex Work, Immigration and Social Difference challenges the ‘migrant sex worker’ category by investigating the experiences of women who are often assumed to be ‘migrant sex workers’ in Australia and Canada. Many ‘migrant sex workers’ in Melbourne and Vancouver are in fact, naturalized citizens or permanent residents, whose involvement in the sex industry intersects with diverse ideas and experiences of citizenship in Australia and Canada. This book examines how immigrant, migrant and racialized sex workers in Vancouver and Melbourne wield or negotiate ideas of illegality and legality to obtain desired outcomes in their day-to-day work. Sex work continues to be the subject of fierce debate in the public sphere, at the policy level, and within research discourses. This study interrogates these perceptions of the ‘migrant sex worker’ by presenting the lived realities of women who embody or experience dimensions of this category. This book is interdisciplinary and will appeal to those engaged in criminology, sociology, law, and women’s studies. Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 4 Title Page......Page 6 Copyright Page......Page 7 Table of Contents......Page 8 List of illustrations......Page 9 Foreword......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 List of abbreviations......Page 13 1 Introduction......Page 14 2 Investigating agency in sex work research......Page 22 3 Intersectionality and social difference in sex work research......Page 51 4 Power, positioning and other methodological challenges in sex work research......Page 66 5 Sex work and the non-migrant ‘migrant’......Page 82 6 Using legalities and illegalities in sex work......Page 114 7 Co-workers, clients and knowledge production in sex work......Page 144 8 Agency, security, mobility and social difference in sex work......Page 174 Index......Page 182