Abstract
AbstractSince 2016, hundreds of Chinese migrants selling sexual services in Paris have been the target of systematic control operations by the police, whose clear objective is to “sweep” prostitution out of some neighbourhoods. In reaction to these measures, a group of Chinese women organized their own collective, The Steel Roses (Les Roses d’Acier), and asked the local government to better prevent violence against sex workers, rather than fight sex workers themselves. By doing so, they tried to embody political agency, and asked for the local government to include them as part of the “local diversity” and as legitimate city users. In a context of local gentrification, where diversity is presented as an important characteristic of these multicultural neighborhoods, such a mobilization by migrant sex workers underlines the ongoing controversy around the definition of diversity, as well as controversy in terms of who is legitimate to embody urban imaging. This chapter proposes to describe the controversy launched by the Chinese sex workers in some districts of Paris as another case study of the ways political power relations contribute to the definition of what is diversity and who belongs to a city defined in terms of cosmopolitanism.
Highlights
Since 2016 hundreds of Chinese migrants selling sexual services in Paris have been the target of systematic control operations by the police, whose clear objective is to “sweep” prostitution out of migrant neighborhoods in Paris’s 13th and 19th arrondissements
We study how the double circumstances of a denied claim for local participation and a new abolitionist approach tend to further exclude sex workers from the cosmopolitan narratives on local diversity and the implementation of inclusive policies
By not acknowledging the political agency of migrant sex workers and denying them a voice, local authorities reinforce a classist interpretation of what local diversity should be and deny migrant sex workers the right to participate in the everyday life of these areas
Summary
Since 2016 hundreds of Chinese migrants selling sexual services in Paris have been the target of systematic control operations by the police, whose clear objective is to “sweep” prostitution out of migrant neighborhoods in Paris’s 13th and 19th arrondissements. In reaction to these measures, a group of Chinese sex workers organized the collective “The Steel Roses” [Les Roses d’Acier] and petitioned the local government to focus on preventing violence against sex workers rather than fighting sex workers. We want to show that we are part of this neighborhood.” In the context of local gentrification, where diversity is presented as an important characteristic of multicultural neighborhoods, this mobilization by migrant sex workers underlines the ongoing controversy around the definition of “diversity” as well as the controversy over who can legitimately claim to be part of the urban symbolic order
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