Abstract
AbstractThis chapter introduces the structural determinants that shape health and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers globally. It explores issues related to criminalisation, mandatory health testing, precarious immigration status, economic marginalisation, racialisation, racism and discrimination, language barriers, and gender. This chapter examines how these factors shape health access, health outcomes, and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers in diverse contexts. These issues were explored through a review of academic literature, which was complemented by community consultations that elucidate the lived experiences of gender-diverse im/migrant sex workers from Europe and across the globe. Findings illustrate how shifting sex work criminalisation, public health and immigration regulations (e.g. sex worker registration, mandatory HIV/STI testing), and policing practices impact im/migrant sex workers and shape the labour environments in which they work. The chapter subsequently presents recommendations on policy and programmatic approaches to enhance health access and labour rights among im/migrant sex workers. Finally, it concludes by highlighting the ways in which im/migrant sex workers resist social and structural exclusion, stigma, and ‘victim’ stereotypes, highlighting their tenacity and leadership in the fight to advance labour and human rights among im/migrants and sex workers worldwide.
Highlights
Workers often migrate seeking improved working conditions, yet frequently face precarious labour and insecure employment in destination settings [1–3]: evidence from Global Northern and Southern contexts has documented unsafe working conditions, low access to labour protections, barriers to health access, and poor health outcomes among immigrant and migrant workers [4–7]
We present policy and programmatic recommendations based on epidemiological evidence, qualitative research, and im/migrant sex worker voices from the community consultations and across the globe on the subject of enhancing their health and rights
Our findings suggest that constructive interventions are those that (1) implement laws and policies aimed at enhancing health access among im/migrant sex workers and (2) enable the legal operation of formal indoor sex work venues and support their management in promoting sexual health [86]
Summary
Workers often migrate seeking improved working conditions, yet frequently face precarious labour and insecure employment in destination settings [1–3]: evidence from Global Northern and Southern contexts has documented unsafe working conditions, low access to labour protections, barriers to health access, and poor health outcomes among immigrant and migrant (im/migrant1) workers [4–7]. Im/migrants frequently face economic marginalisation, discrimination and racism, precarious immigration status, non-recognition of foreign credentials and training, and exclusion from formal employment opportunities [5, 7, 8], all of which contribute to their over-representation in precarious, insecure, and informal forms of labour, including sex work [2, 9–11]. Precarious labour is a multidimensional construct encompassing dimensions such as employment insecurity, low wages and economic deprivation, limited social protection and workplace rights, and powerlessness to exercise workplace rights
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