PROJECT OUTPUTS

COMPARATIVE PUBLICATIONS

1) Mai, N., Macioti, PG, Bennachie, C., Fehrenbacher A. E., Giametta, C., Hoefinger, H. and Musto, J. (2021) ‘Migration, Sex Work and Trafficking: the Racialized Bordering Politics of Sexual Humanitarianism’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2021.1892790

The article was published in Ethnic and Racial Studies as part of the Special Issue on ‘The Sexual Politics of Border Control’, edited by Holzberg, Billy, Madörin, Anouk and Michelle Pfeifer.
 
Abstract: The article presents the findings of the SEXHUM project studying the impact of the different policies targeting migrant sex workers in Australia, France, New Zealand, and the United States. It draws on the concept of sexual humanitarianism, referring to how neoliberal constructions of vulnerability associated with sexual behaviour are implicated in humanitarian forms of support and control of migrant populations. Based on over three years of fieldwork we examine the differential ways in which Asian cis women and Latina trans women are constructed and targeted as vulnerable to exploitation, violence and abuse, or not, in relation to racialized and cis-centric sexual humanitarian canons of victimhood. Through our comparative analysis we expose how the implication of sexual humanitarian rhetoric in increasingly extreme bordering policies and interventions on migrant sex workers impacts on their lives and rights, arguing for the urgent need for social reform informed by the experiences of these groups.
 
 

AUSTRALIA

In Australia, SEXHUM concentrated on the experiences of migrant sex workers under the first Decriminalisation model in NSW (since 1995) and under the 1994 licensing Sex Work Act in Victoria. These are the publications the project produced so far, based on its original ethnographic and interview data.

1) Macioti, PG, Aroney, E., Bennachie, C., Fehrenbacher, A.E., Giametta, C., Hoefinger, H., Mai, N., and Musto, J. (2020) “Framing the Mother Tac: The Racialised, Sexualised and Gendered Politics of Modern Slavery in Australia”, Social Sciences, 9(11), 192; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9110192

Abstract: Centred on the slavery trial “Crown vs. Rungnapha Kanbut” heard in Sydney, New South Wales, between 10 April and 15 May 2019, this article seeks to frame the figure of the “Mother Tac” or the “mother of contract”, also called “mama tac” or “mae tac”—a term used amongst Thai migrants to describe a woman who hosts, collects debts from, and organises work for Thai migrant sex workers in their destination country. It proposes that this largely unexplored figure has come to assume a disproportionate role in the “modern slavery” approach to human trafficking, with its emphasis on absolute victims and individual offenders. The harms suffered by Kanbut’s victims are put into context by referring to existing literature on women accused of trafficking; interviews with Thai migrant sex workers, including Kanbut’s primary victim, and with members from the Australian Federal Police Human Trafficking Unit; and ethnographic field notes. The article unveils how constructions of both victim and offender, as well as definitions of slavery, are racialised, gendered, and sexualised and rely on the victims’ subjective accounts of bounded exploitation. By documenting these and other limitations involved in a criminal justice approach, the authors reveal its shortfalls. For instance, while harsh sentences are meant as a deterrence to others, the complex and structural roots of migrant labour exploitation remain unaffected. This research finds that improved legal migration pathways, the decriminalisation of the sex industry, and improved access to information and support for migrant sex workers are key to reducing heavier forms of labour exploitation, including human trafficking, in the Australian sex industry.
 

Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/11/192

PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/11/192/pdf

FRANCE

In France, SEXHUM has focused on the impact of the sex purchase law (n° 2016-444), which introduced the criminalization of clients, on the lives and rights of migrant (and non-migrant) sex workers. These are the publications the project produced so far, based on its original ethnographic and interview data.

1) Calderaro, Charlène and Giametta, Calogero (2019) ‘“The Problem of Prostitution”: Repressive Policies in the Name of Migration Control, Public Order, and Women’s Rights in France’, Anti-Trafficking Review, 12: 155-171. Available online:  http://www.antitraffickingreview.org

The paper discusses the political debates that led to the adoption of the sex purchase ban (the Swedish model) in France in April 2016. It examines the convergence of French mainstream feminists and traditional neo-abolitionist actors in the fight against prostitution, and its impact on sex workers’ rights and wellbeing.

2) Mai, Nicola, Giametta, Calogero and Le Bail, Hélène (2018) The Impact of the ‘Swedish model’ in France: Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold. Available online: https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/nicola-mai-calogero-giametta-h-l-ne-le-bail/impact-of-swedish-model-in-france-chronicl

The article presents the findings of the research undertaken for Medecins du Monde/Doctors the World by Dr Calogero Giametta of SEXHUM and Dr Hélène Le Bail of Medecins du Monde/ Doctors of the World and Sciences Po Paris.

The report ‘What do Sex Workers Think about the French Prostitution Act?’ shows that the sex purchase law (n° 2016-444) ended up achieving the opposite of its intended aims. The majority of those interviewed believe that the criminalisation of clients is more detrimental to their well-being and safety than the previous laws against soliciting. They feel that they have far less control over their working conditions because of the falling number of clients since the new law came into effect. Moreover, the study shows that at a local level the law has not always suspended municipal bylaws and regular identity checks, which has resulted in sex workers being pushed away from their usual work places and city centres into more dangerous, isolated and unknown places.

The law has impoverished many sex workers, especially those who were already experiencing economic difficulties and particularly migrant women working in the street. Sex workers have been increasingly obliged to accept clients whom they would have previously refused. Generally, the decreasing time available to negotiate with clients has made it harder for sex workers to impose their conditions. Many interviews highlighted a worrying decrease in condom use as well as increased difficulties continuing treatment for those who are HIV positive. Stress created by worsening working conditions is also at the root of various psychosomatic health issues, from alcohol and drug consumption, to depression and suicidal thoughts. The results of the qualitative research also reveal that cases of violence, of all kinds, have increased and that impoverishment, increased health risks and increased exposure to violence form a vicious circle.

A summary of the report in English and the full report in French can be downloaded from the links at the end of the article.

3) Calogero Giametta, Dinah de Riquet-Bons, PG Macioti, Nick Mai, Calum Bennachie, Anne Fehrenbacher, Heidi Hoefinger, Jennifer Musto (2022) ‘Racial Profiling and The Larger Impact of Covid-19 on Migrant Sex Workers in France’. International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law 2(2): 225-251. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.19164/ijgsl.v2i1.1261

Available online: https://www.northumbriajournals.co.uk/index.php/IJGSL/article/view/1261

Abstract

In this article we will discuss the first Coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown and its immediate aftermath on the lives of migrant sex workers living and working in France, drawing on original interviews gathered between May and July 2020. Since 2016 in France, sex workers have worked under the so-called Swedish model legal framework criminalising the demand of sexual services. This has meant that sex workers, both migrant and non-migrant, have had to find various strategies to continue working within a criminalised environment      infringing upon their rights and safety. Research in the French context has largely shown that the introduction of the Swedish model increased the financial precarity and impacted in significant, detrimental ways the physical and mental health of sex workers (Le Bail & Giametta 2018). In the context of the existing hardship to which migrant sex workers were exposed under this repressive regime in France, this article investigates if and how the law enforcement and emergency measures around the Covid-19 crisis aggravated their already precarious living conditions. Our analysis here demonstrates that both institutional racism (e.g., government policies and law enforcement targeting racialized migrants) and interpersonal stigmatisation (e.g., poor treatment and stereotyping by clients and civil society) must be combated to reduce the discrimination against migrant sex workers that is amplified in times of crisis.

4) Giametta C, Mai N, Musto J, et al. Racialization within Antitrafficking Interventions Targeting Migrant Sex Workers: Findings from the SEXHUM Research Project in France. Sociological Research Online. June 2022. doi:10.1177/13607804221090354

Abstract

This article draws on the findings of the research project Sexual Humanitarianism: Migration, Sex Work, and Trafficking (SEXHUM), a study investigating migration, sex work, and human trafficking in Australia, France, New Zealand, and the US. In this article, we focus on how racialized categories are mobilized in antitrafficking practices in France. Since April 2016, the French government has enforced a prohibitionist and neo-abolitionist law criminalizing the demand for sexual services. This coincided with the targeting of Chinese and Nigerian cis-women and with the neglect of Latina trans women working in the sex industry according to racialized and sex-gendered understandings of victimhood. Whereas Chinese women tend to be presented by humanitarian rhetoric as silent victims of Chinese male-dominated mafias, Nigerian women have come to embody the ultimate figure of the victim of trafficking by an overpowering Black male criminality. Meanwhile, (sexual) humanitarian actors have neglected Latina trans women’s ongoing experiences of extreme violence and marginalization.

NEW ZEALAND

In Aotearoa New Zealand the project gathered the experiences of migrant sex workers in a context of anti-migrant rhetoric and interventions. Its findings show clearly that current decriminalizing legislation should be extended to all migrant sex workers to protect their labour and human rights.

1) Bennachie, Calum, Annah Pickering, Jenny Lee, P. G. Macioti, Nicola Mai, Anne E. Fehrenbacher, Calogero Giametta, Heidi Hoefinger and Jennifer Musto (2021) Unfinished Decriminalization: The Impact of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 on Migrant Sex Workers’ Rights and Lives in Aotearoa New Zealand. Social Sciences 10: 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050179

Abstract
In 2003, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) passed the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA), which decriminalized sex work for NZ citizens and holders of permanent residency (PR) while excluding migrant sex workers (MSWs) from its protection. This is due to Section 19 (s19) of the PRA, added at the last minute against advice by the Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective (NZPC) as an anti-trafficking clause. Because of s19, migrants on temporary visas found to be working as sex workers are liable to deportation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Drawing on original ethnographic and interview data gathered over 24 months of fieldwork, our study finds that migrant sex workers in New Zealand are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and are too afraid to report these to the police for fear of deportation, corroborating earlier studies and studies completed while we were collecting data.
 
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/5/179/htm

 

UNITED STATES

In the US, the project focused on the brutal realities of violence and abuse faced by Asian cis women and black and Latinx trans sex workers of colour, who have been targeted by anti-migrant and anti-sex work police interventions and deportations under the Trump administration. Its findings provide powerful documentation of such abuses that will be useful to policymakers, sex worker rights activists and academic allies.

1) Fehrenbacher, Anne E, Jennifer Musto, Heidi Hoefinger, Nicola Mai,  PG Macioti, Calogero Giametta and Calum Bennachie, C. (2020) ‘Transgender People and Human Trafficking: Intersectional Exclusion of Transgender Migrants and People of Color from Anti-trafficking Protection in the United States’ , Journal of Human Trafficking. DOI: 10.1080/23322705.2020.1690116

Abstract: Transgender (hereafter: trans) people are rarely included in human trafficking research. This empirical study presents narratives of trans individuals who report experiences consistent with the Palermo Protocol’s definition of trafficking, access to anti-trafficking services for trans individuals, and attitudes of anti-trafficking advocates and law enforcement toward trans people. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted for 30 months between March 2017 and August 2019 in Los Angeles and New York City included in-depth interviews with sex workers and trafficked persons (n = 50), of whom 26 were trans, and key informants (n = 17) from law enforcement and social services. Most trans participants who reported exploitation did not self-identify as victims of trafficking nor were they identified by police or anti-trafficking organizations as victims. Law enforcement gatekeeping was identified by anti-trafficking advocates as a barrier to meeting the needs of trans clients because they were viewed as “less exploitable” than cisgender women. Discriminatory law enforcement practices resulted in the exclusion and hyper-criminalization of trans migrants and people of color who were profiled not only by gender, but also race/ethnicity and immigration status.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23322705.2020.1690116?journalCode=uhmt20&

2) Hoefinger, Heidi, Jennifer Musto, PG Macioti, Annie Fehrenbacher, Nicola Mai, Calum Bennachie and Calogero Giametta (2019) Community-Based Responses to Negative Health Impacts of Sexual Humanitarian Anti-Trafficking Policies and the Criminalization of Sex Work and Migration in the US. Social Sciences. 9. 1. 10.3390/socsci9010001.

Abstract: System-involvement resulting from anti-trafficking interventions and the criminalization of sex work and migration results in negative health impacts on sex workers, migrants, and people with trafficking experiences. Due to their stigmatized status, sex workers and people with trafficking experiences often struggle to access affordable, unbiased, and supportive health care. This paper will use thematic analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork with 50 migrant sex workers and trafficked persons, as well as 20 key informants from legal and social services, in New York and Los Angeles. It will highlight the work of trans-specific and sex worker–led initiatives that are internally addressing gaps in health care and the negative health consequences that result from sexual humanitarian anti-trafficking interventions that include policing, arrest, court-involvement, court-mandated social services, incarceration, and immigration detention. Our analysis focuses on the impact of criminalization on sex workers and their experiences with sexual humanitarian efforts intended to protect and control them. We argue that these grassroots community-based efforts are a survival-oriented reaction to the harms of criminalization and a response to vulnerabilities left unattended by mainstream sexual humanitarian approaches to protection and service provision that frame sex work itself as the problem. Peer-to-peer interventions such as these create solidarity and resiliency within marginalized communities, which act as protective buffers against institutionalized systemic violence and the resulting negative health outcomes. Our results suggest that broader public health support and funding for community-led health initiatives are needed to reduce barriers to health care resulting from stigma, criminalization, and ineffective anti-trafficking and humanitarian efforts. We conclude that the decriminalization of sex work and the reform of institutional practices in the US are urgently needed to reduce the overall negative health outcomes of system-involvement.

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Samantha Majic and another anonymous reviewer for providing detailed and insightful feedback on this paper. The authors would also like to thank Jenna Torres, Ceyenne Doroshow, Alex Andrews, Liaam Winslet and Lorena Borjas for their assistance with this paper. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge and express their gratitude to all of the migrant, sex worker and trans participants and key informants in our study, as well as the community partners who made this research possible.
 
The full article in English is available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/1/1/htm

The translation of the article in Spanish by Iliana Pupo (President of Trans/Youth Health International) is available here.

La traducción del artículo en español de Iliana Pupo (Presidenta de Trans/Youth Health International) está disponible aquí.

SEXHUM-Social-Sciences-ESDownload
 

3) Musto Jennifer, Fehrenbacher Anne E, Hoefinger Heidi, Mai Nicola, Macioti PG, Bennachie Calum, Giametta Calogero, D’Adamo Kate (2021) Anti-Trafficking in the Time of FOSTA/SESTA: Networked Moral Gentrification and Sexual Humanitarian Creep. Social Sciences 10(2):58. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020058

Abstract
Globally, sex workers have highlighted the harms that accompany anti-prostitution efforts advanced via anti-trafficking policy, and there is a growing body of social science research that has emerged documenting how anti-trafficking efforts contribute to carceral and sexual humanitarian interventions. Yet mounting evidence on the harms of anti-trafficking policies has done little to quell the passage of more laws, including policies aimed at stopping sexual exploitation facilitated by technology. The 2018 passage of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the corresponding Senate bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), is a case study in how efforts to curb sexual exploitation online actually heighten vulnerabilities for the people they purport to protect. Drawing on 34 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with sex workers and trafficked persons (n = 58) and key informants (n = 20) in New York and Los Angeles, we analyze FOSTA/SESTA and its harmful effects as a launchpad to more broadly explore how technology, criminalization, shifting governance arrangements, and conservative moralities cohere to exacerbate sex workers’ vulnerability.

 

Available online (Open Access): https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/2/58/htm