Discourses on forced prostitution, trafficking in women, and football: a comparison of anti‐trafficking campaigns during the World Cup 2006 and the European Championship 2008

Abstract

Compared with the massive campaigns against trafficking in women during the 2006 men’s football World Cup in Germany, the issue was not taken up very much in Austria, which hosted the European Championships in 2008. Except for some smaller initiatives, the public debates were not as strong as two years before. In Germany, not only were fears of an increased demand for sexual services due to the number of male football fans and ‘a flood’ of foreign prostitutes expressed, but so too was the concern that they would not come voluntarily. It was assumed that many of the women would be trafficked and forced into prostitution. Quite a number of women’s organizations in Germany thus campaigned against trafficking in women during the 2006 championship. This article compares the discourses in Germany and Austria and sheds light on the reasons for their similarities and differences. In particular, we explain the modest public debates and the lack of explicit mobilization against trafficking in women by Austrian feminist organizations. In doing so, the article sketches the most important strands in the argumentation of anti‐trafficking campaigns and their entanglement with other social fields, such as migration and gender relations. The focus of this article lies in the problematic mixing of concepts such as trafficking, forced prostitution, sex work and migration, and on the effects this might have. ‘Expect emotions’ (Slogan of EURO 2008)