Sex Workers In Europe Research Articles

SexWork.DK: a comparative study of citizenship and working hours among sex workers in Denmark

ABSTRACT Sex workers in Europe are increasingly of nonnational origin. The Schengen cooperation allows internal migration within the European Union, but many migrant sex workers originate from outside the EU. While sex workers are already in precarious positions, nonnationals risk deportation, dependent on their citizenship status, and may have debts to smugglers. Consequently, they may be more likely to work longer hours to increase short-term profits. Using a dataset of sex work advertisements from one Danish website (n = 2,594), we estimate the association between inferred citizenship status and a) advertised hours on shift using ordinary least squares regression, and b) the probability of advertising 24/7 availability using a linear probability model. Compared to Danish sex workers, we find migrants advertise almost twice as many hours on shift and are more likely to advertise 24/7 availability. These results shed light on the inequalities that persist between national and nonnational sex workers.

Human Trafficking Patterns of Thai Female Sex Workers in Europe: Potential Mechanisms for Preventing and Solving the Sex Trafficking

ABSTRACT The trafficking of vulnerable women has long been a topic of considerable concern for many in the Thai government. The poor economic and social conditions experienced by many Thai women have made them a prime target for multinational criminal organizations, which recruit and send such individuals to destinations abroad, particularly in Europe, to be exploited through prostitution. Despite the gravity of this issue, there is a dearth of research into the current trafficking patterns perpetrated by these organizations, and into effective prevention mechanisms. This study aimed to investigate and address potential gaps by examining the multinational trafficking patterns of female sex services from Thailand to Europe. Twenty-five former Thai victims living in Norway, France, and Germany were recruited for a focus group and in-depth interviews. The thematic analysis of the data revealed that raising awareness and empowering those at risk of being forced into prostitution, enforcing immigration laws, establishing an international network of NGOs, and offering online assistance could all be effective strategies for preventing vulnerable women from becoming victims of sex trafficking. It is thus recommended that these factors be taken into consideration when designing models of prevention for sex trafficking.

Improving the health status of sex workers in Europe: a policy brief with recommendations

Context: Although the United Nations and the European Union are set to improve life on earth through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Framework, sex workers have not been included in this Framework, thereby further increasing various issues, which affect this group, such as discrimination, stigma, and poor mental- and physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already existing disadvantages of sex workers, highlighting the need for a systematic change to sustainably improve the empowerment and health status of sex workers throughout the European Union. Policy Options: The aim of this policy brief is to propose recommendations, which can contribute to the sustainable improvement of the health status and empowerment of sex workers throughout the EU. Policy options include a bottom-up approach with use of community-based organizations and public-private partnerships, targeting inclusion of sex workers, the organization of workshops, and the distribution of toolkits. Recommendations: Inclusion of sex workers in the SDG Framework; Organization of community-based workshops by and for sex workers; Distribution of culture-personalized toolkits by and to sex workers.

‘My body is my piece of land’: Indebted deportation among undocumented migrant sex workers from Thailand and Nigeria in Europe

Set at the intersection of debt and deportability, this article analyses how undocumented migrant sex workers in Europe navigate deportability and its effects. While sex trafficking into the EU has received mounting attention as part of global migration dynamics, the role of debt in the lives of migrant women has been overlooked. The migrant women in this study arrive in Europe heavily indebted after traveling through the Sahara Desert and across the Mediterranean, or via migration facilitators in Southeast Asia, to find work in the European sex industry. Their deportation might therefore entail returning to their home countries still indebted. The article draws on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the home areas of two of the largest groups of undocumented migrant sex workers in Europe –Thailand’s Isaan province and Benin City in Nigeria’s Edo State – where women’s migration has become a familiar social phenomenon. Moving away from either a criminalizing or a victimizing framework for understanding sex-work migration, I argue for the concept of ‘indentured sex-work migration’ as a meaningful corrective to the narrative on sex trafficking and that the situation of ‘indebted deportation’ need to be better understood within the study of contemporary border control and security.

Improving the health status of sex workers in Europe: a policy brief with recommendations

Context: Although the United Nations and the European Union are set to improve life on earth through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Framework, sex workers have not been included in this Framework, thereby further increasing various issues, which affect this group, such as discrimination, stigma, and poor mental- and physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already existing disadvantages of sex workers, highlighting the need for a systematic change to sustainably improve the empowerment and health status of sex workers throughout the European Union. Policy Options: The aim of this policy brief is to propose recommendations, which can contribute to the sustainable improvement of the health status and empowerment of sex workers throughout the EU. Policy options include a bottom-up approach with use of community-based organizations and public-private partnerships, targeting inclusion of sex workers, the organization of workshops, and the distribution of toolkits. Recommendations: Inclusion of sex workers in the SDG Framework; Organization of community-based workshops by and for sex workers; Distribution of culture-personalized toolkits by and to sex workers. Acknowledgments: We thank Martina Paric, our senior advisor, and Kasia Czabanowska for heart-warming support. Authors’ contributions: All authors contributed equally to this work. Conflict of interest: None declared Source of funding: None declared

“We Are in Quarantine but Caring Does Not Stop”: Mutual Aid as Radical Care in Brazil

Feminist Studies 46, no. 3. © 2020 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 639 Carolina Moraes, Juma Santos, and Mariana Prandini Assis “We Are in Quarantine but Caring Does Not Stop”: Mutual Aid as Radical Care in Brazil Feminist scholars have long argued that a “crisis of care” is characteristic of capitalist societies—capitalism has a tendency to jeopardize and destroy the very process and conditions of social reproduction upon which it depends.1 A consequence of capitalism’s systemic orientation toward unlimited accumulation, the crisis of care has expressed itself in different forms throughout history. In the current regime of globalizing financialized capitalism, care work has been externalized onto families and communities along with a drastic downsizing of public provisions. For those who can afford it, all kinds of care activities are available as commodities to be purchased in the market. Those unable to pay for care need to find time and energy to do it for themselves and their dependents. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the deadly consequences of the accumulated capitalist erosion of care into sharp relief. Working mothers , unable to juggle work, children, and household chores, have left their jobs to respond to the increased need for care work at home.2 Underfundedhealthcaresystemshavecollapsedinthefaceofanunprecedented 1. Nancy Fraser, “Contradictions of Capital and Care,” New Left Review 100 (2016): 99–117. 2. EJ Dickson, “Coronavirus Is Killing the Working Mother,” Rolling Stone, July 3, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/workingmotherhood -covid-19-coronavirus-1023609. 640 Carolina Moraes, Juma Santos, and Mariana Prandini Assis demand.3 Frontline and low-wage essential care workers, particularly those in the gig economy, endure overexploitation and burnout even in the cases where they are able to keep their jobs.4 These are just a few examples of how the current public health crisis further exposes the contradictions of care and capital. While fundamental, these examples nonetheless speak to dimensions of care that are often neglected, but not altogether ignored by mainstream discourse and policy. There are, however, populations whose care work and needs remain unacknowledged, both in “normal” and exceptional times. As states across the world adopt lockdown and social distancing measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, entire sectors of the informal economy are left with no work and no social protection. Street sex workers are one of them. Worldwide, sex workers face barriers to access financial relief for immediate needs, to benefit from recovery plans, or to enjoy temporary forms of labor protection devised to respond to the socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic.5 Particularly those living in the so-called red light areas not only are incapable of following social distancing and other public health orders, but they are also targeted with greater stigmatization and other forms of discrimination.6 Stigmatization of sex work through its association with the spread of infectious disease is not a new phenomenon, but it finds renewed severity in studies that purportedly seek to investigate the potential impact of closing red light areas in response to COVID-19.7 3. Vicente Navarro, “The Consequences of Neoliberalism in the Current Pandemic ,” International Journal of Health Services 50, no. 3 (2020): 271–75. 4. Alexandra Mateescu, “Carework under Crisis: COVID-19 is Exacerbating the ‘Care Crisis’ in Society,” Data & Society, April 15, 2020, https://points.dataso ciety.net/carework-under-crisis-6b8521fda056. 5. Priyanka Tripathi and Chhandita Das, “Social Distancing and Sex Workers in India,” Economic and Political Weekly 55, no. 31 (2020): 21–24; International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, “Policy Demands: The Impact of Covid-19 on Sex Workers in Europe and Central Asia and Recommendations for Policy Makers,” 2020, https://www.sexworkeurope.org/sites/default/files/userfiles/files /Policy_brief_ICRSE_COVID19.pdf (accessed on September 20, 2020). 6. Tripathi and Das, “Social Distancing and Sex Workers in India,” 21–24. 7. Abhishek Pandey, Sudhakar V. Nuti, Pratha Sah, Chad Wells, Alison P. Galvani , and Jeffrey P. Townsend, “The Effect of Extended Closure of RedLight Areas on COVID-19 Transmission in India,” Physics and Society (2020), https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.10488. Carolina Moraes, Juma Santos, and Mariana Prandini Assis 641 Marginalized, stigmatized, and often denied their full citizenship status, street sex...

Male clients of Thai transgender sex workers in Europe

Academic approaches to the topic of Thai transgender women (kathoey) working in the sex industry have hitherto typically focused on their sociocultural background and economic motivations. These have relied heavily on feminist theories. Meanwhile, such studies have typically also treated their clients as products of heteropatriarchy or as deviants. This article presents fresh insights into Thai kathoey sex workers' European clients in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium. This is a neglected field in sexual behaviour that involves fetishism and the reality of European men who prefer to buy sex from Thai transgender sex workers. With an anthropological understanding of power relations, the article questions the notion, common in studies of prostitution, that the entire story is one of vile human degradation and violence against transgender sex workers.

Dekryminalizacja, praca, intersekcjonalność, uznanie: ramy ruchu pracownic i pracowników, seksualnych w Europie

Celem artykułu jest podjęcie krytycznej dyskusji nad regionalną specyfiką i dynamiką ruchu pracownic i pracowników seksualnych w Europie. Nakreślając trzy fale mobilizacji pracownic i pracowników seksualnych w regionie, podejmę próbę odpowiedzi na dwa, ściśle ze sobą powiązane, pytania: a) wokół jakich żądań, zbiorowych tożsamości i politycznych projektów organizują się osoby świadczące usługi seksualne w Europie? b) w jaki sposób społeczne czy kulturowe uwarunkowania – choćby takie jak postępująca kryminalizacja pracy seksualnej, epidemia HIV, pojawienie się globalnego ruchu na rzecz praw osób świadczących usługi seksualne czy wzrost popularności dyskursów antyprostytucyjnych i abolicyjnych – wpływają na formy samoorganizacji, orientacje i sposoby działania czy, w końcu, na autoidentyfikacje organizacji zrzeszających osoby pracujące seksualnie. Soczewką, przez którą spojrzę na ruch pracownic i pracowników seksualnych w Europie, jest Międzynarodowy Komitet na rzecz Praw Pracownic i Pracowników Seksualnych (ICRSE) – największa ponadnarodowa sieć rzecznicza działająca na rzecz praw osób świadczących usługi seksualne w regionie. Odwołując się do przyjętej na gruncie badań nad ruchami społecznymi kategorii ram działania zbiorowego, wyróżnię cztery kluczowe sposoby ramifikacji pracy seksualnej wypracowywane przez ICRSE: ramę „prawa do posiadania praw”, ramę„ekryminalizacji”, ramę„racy seksualnej jako pracy w późym kapitalizmie” oraz ramę„ntersekcjonalną”.

Still We Rise — The Contemporary Sex Worker Movement in Europe in the Context of Neo-Abolitionism and Repressive Policies

In 2015, sex worker activists across Europe celebrated the 40th anniversary of their political mobilisations. Despite having sustained and further institutionalised their transnational movement, these activists are currently confronted with an increasingly adversarial context formed by neo-abolitionist prostitution opponents and repressive policies. In this paper, I explore how sex workers in Europe engage in activism in this adversarial context and investigate how the latter impacts on their contemporary mobilisations. My analysis of the movement’s framing processes demonstrates that it is indeed strongly influenced by neo-abolitionism and repressive policies. Yet, activists continue to mobilise and adjust strategically in an attempt to reclaim self-representation, build coalitions, achieve legislative reform and ultimately, drive social change.

3.G. Skills building seminar: Understanding and addressing health disparities for sex workers in Europe<subtitle>Organised by: Open Society Foundations</subtitle>

3.G. Skills building seminar: Understanding and addressing health disparities for sex workers in Europe<subtitle>Organised by: Open Society Foundations</subtitle>

3.G. Skills building seminar: Understanding and addressing health disparities for sex workers in Europe

3.G. Skills building seminar: Understanding and addressing health disparities for sex workers in Europe

Factors mediating HIV risk among female sex workers in Europe: a systematic review and ecological analysis

ObjectivesWe reviewed the epidemiology of HIV and selected sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers (FSWs) in WHO-defined Europe. There were three objectives: (1) to assess the prevalence of...

European Citizenship Unbound: Sex Work, Mobility, Mobilisation

In October 2005 200 delegates from twenty-eight countries in Europe gathered in Brussels to take part in an event for sex workers' rights, which involved a three-day conference, the presentation of a Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe in the European Parliament, the drafting of a Manifesto, recommendations for policy makers, a party, and a demonstration. The sex workers' mobilisation appears, at first sight, to be an exemplary form of active citizenship. Nevertheless, despite engaging European institutions, being active participants, and making use of the language of rights, we argue that the sex workers' mobilisation challenges the conception of active European Union (EU) citizenship. In particular, we show how sex workers activists question territorially and culturally bounded practices of EU citizenship by enacting mobilities that exceed the instituted forms of free movement and that bring to bear a mode of sociality that is enacted through exchange relations between strangers. Specifically, we suggest that the concept of ‘acts of citizenship’ is better equipped than juridical or practice-orientated accounts of citizenship to engage a critical analysis of the ways that European citizenship is made and remade by the sex workers. Furthermore, we claim that the case of the sex workers demands attention be paid to the complex ways in which ‘mobilisations of mobility’ entails the disruption and enactment of European citizenship ‘on the ground’, rather than a simple extension of European citizenship beyond its existing bounds.

SP5-17 Monitoring illicit drug use and substance dependency among female sex workers in Europe, 2000–2009: an overview

IntroductionWorldwide, illicit drug use and substance dependency will remain important public health problems during the next decades. Clinical evidence suggests that sex workers (SW) are a high risk group with...

Atos de cidadania europeia: uma sociologia política da mobilidade

A cidadania europeia é marcada por uma tensão entre uma cidadania derivativa do Estado-nação e uma cidadania definida pela liberdade de movimento. Abordando essa tensão como sintomática de uma profunda contradição entre integração e mobilidade que é constitutiva das formações sociais modernas, este artigo desenvolve uma sociologia política da mobilidade que desafia as considerações territoriais e culturalistas sobre a cidadania europeia. Isso é feito explorando a representação política da cidadania europeia por parte de sujeitos marginalizados, cujo engajamento em relações de troca serve como lugar para atos de cidadania europeia que "mobilizam a mobilidade". Isso é ilustrado por uma análise da Declaração dos Direitos dos Trabalhadores Sexuais na Europa, de 2005.

Acts of European Citizenship: A Political Sociology of Mobility

AbstractEuropean citizenship is marked by a tension: between a citizenship that is derivative of the nation‐state and a citizenship that is defined by free movement. Approaching this tension as symptomatic of a deep‐rooted contradiction between integration and mobility that is constitutive of modern social formations, this article develops a political sociology of mobility that challenges territorial and culturalist accounts of European citizenship. It does so by exploring the political enactment of European citizenship by marginalized subjects, whose engagement in relations of exchange serves as the ground for acts of European citizenship that ‘mobilize mobility’. This is illustrated by an analysis of the 2005 Declaration for the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe.

How safe is safer sex? High levels of HSV-1 and HSV-2 in female sex workers in London

Female sex workers in Europe have low levels of sexually transmitted infections, attributable to condom use. The aim of this paper is to describe the seroepidemiology of HSV-1 and HSV-2 in female sex workers in London by using a 15-year prospective study of 453 sex workers. The seroprevalence of HSV-1 was 74.4% and independently associated with birth in a 'transitional country' (OR 5.4, 95% CI 1.61-18.20). The seroprevalence of HSV-2 was 60% and declined over time; it was also independently associated with time in sex work (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.23-3.65) and birth in a 'developing country' (OR 2.95, 95% CI 1.34-6.48). We show that a cohort of sex workers with extensive condom use and little known sexually transmitted infection have high levels of HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection, suggesting that condoms may not be universally protective. Sex workers are candidates for HSV vaccine efficacy or intervention studies.