Untitled - Biblioteca Alternativa

257 Pages·2010·0.96 MB·English

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Praise for this Book
‘Sex at the Margins elegantly demonstrates that what
happens to poor immigrant working women from the
Global South when they “leave home for sex”is neither a
tragedy nor the panacea of finding the promised land.
Above all, Agustín shows that the moralising bent of
most government and NGO programmes has little to do
with these women’s experiences and wishes.This book
questions some of our most cherished modern assump-
tions, and shows that a different ethics of concern is
possible.’
Arturo Escobar, Kenan Distinguished Professor of
Anthropology and Director,Institute of Latin American
Studies,University of North Carolina
‘In restoring those living on the fringes of western
societies to their full humanity, this invigorating book
undermines our stereotypes and provides a challenging
but unforgettable picture.’
Jeffrey Weeks,London South Bank University
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About the Author
Laura María Agustín studies cultural and postcolonial
issues linking commercial sex, migration, informal
economies and feminist theory. She currently lives in
London,researching the situation of migrant workers in
the sex industry.
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S E X A T T H E M A R G I N S
Migration, Labour Markets
and the Rescue Industry
Laura María Agustín
Zed Books
LONDON & NEW YORK
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Sex at the Margins:Migration,Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
was first published by Zed Books Ltd,7 Cynthia Street,London N1 9JF,UK,
and Room 400,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010,USA
www.zedbooks.co.uk
Copyright © Laura María Agustín
The right of Laura María Agustínto be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act,1988
Designed and typeset in Perpetua and Eurostile
by Long House Publishing Services,Cumbria,UK
Cover designed by Andrew Corbett
Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd
Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan,a division of
St Martin’s Press,LLC,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval
system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 978 1 84277 859 3 Hb
ISBN 978 1 84277 860 9 Pb
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
1 SEXUAL COMMOTION 1
2 WORKING TO TRAVEL,
10
TRAVELLING TO WORK
3 A WORLD OF SERVICES 53
4 THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL 96
– AND OF ‘PROSTITUTION’
5 GRASPING THE THING ITSELF: 134
METHODOLOGY
6 FROM CHARITY TO SOLIDARITY: 152
IN THE FIELD WITH HELPERS
7 PARTIAL TRUTHS 191
Works Cited 196
Primary Sources 228
Index 240
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to everyone whose conversations and writings have given me
pleasure and sparked my thinking over the years and to those who
welcomed me into a social movement.Special thanks to Arturo Escobar,
Pat Crain,Julie Graham,Tony Bennett,Pam Beach,Félix Tremiño,Priscilla
Alexander,Wendy Harcourt,Carol Leigh and Pocho.
Laura María Agustín
Granada,Spain,and Leicester,UK
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To those who leave home
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1
SEXUAL COMMOTION
Some years ago, on a trip to Australia and Thailand, I met five Latin
American women connected to the sex industry:the owner of a legal
brothel and two migrants working for her in Sydney,and two women in
a detention centre for illegal immigrants in Bangkok.These five women
were from Perú, Colombia and Venezuela; they were from different
strata of society;they were different ages.They also had very different
stories to tell.
The brothel owner was a permanent resident in Australia. Her
migrant workers came to Australia on visas to study English,which gave
them the right to work,but getting the visa required paying for the entire
eight-month course in advance,which meant acquiring large debts.The
madam was very affectionate with them but also very controlling;they
lived in her house and travelled with her to work, where she was
teaching them the business.The outreach workers from a local health
project did not speak Spanish.
Of the two women detained in Bangkok,one had been stopped at a
Tokyo airport with a forged visa for Japan.She had been invited by her
sister, who once worked illegally selling sex and now was an illegal
vendor within commercial sex milieux.This traveller was deported back
to Bangkok,the last stage of her journey,where she was imprisoned for
a year before being sent to the detention centre.The second traveller
was caught on camera in a robbery carried out by her boyfriend and
others in Bangkok, after she had travelled around with them in other
parts of Asia;she completed a three-year prison sentence before being
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