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113th out of 146 books
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Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
This groundbreaking book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustin makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label "trafficked" does not accurately ...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
June 15th 2007
by Zed Books
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Melissa
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Agustin makes a compelling case here for the reconsideration of migrant sex workers that is both challenging and certainly grounds for pause on the part of humanitarians. Among my own studies of late, the question of politics within human rights work comes up time and time again. The idea that competing negative viewpoints on (a) immigrant workers, (b) sex workers, and (c) women violating moral sexual norms come together to form a 'rescue industry' that in its efforts to rehabilitate women in fa...more
Not sure if this book is groundbreaking but it certainly is a unique and well documented look at women who migrate to become sex workers. Laura Augustin has a Ph.D. and a refreshing attitude toward what has become called "trafficking" but which she shows is often the best choice a woman in the global South has of supporting herself and her family. She really goes after the canard that all migrating sex workers are controlled by vicious pimps and that none of them are economic migrants ...more
This book shatters many myths about sex workers: that all sex workers are victims, that migrant sex workers are all trafficked, and that all men who use their services are exploitative and perverted. Many of these myths come from feminist theory and moralizing, rather than research of what actually happens in the real world. This author uncovers this research, and exposes the self-interest of many of the organizations that claim to help these "victims," who in most cases never asked ...more
This book shifted my perspective of those valiant first-wave feminists of the Progressive Age, and with it, my feminism altogether. I was also pleased to have my perspective of migrant workers shifted from "huddled masses" to "adventurous world travelers." The book's tone is fairly academic (though totally accessible) but a bit uneven in places. I felt like the chapter presenting her research experiences to be a bit thin, and wished for the kind of depth of analysis she'd giv...more
Agustin looks at global migrations and the sex trade and takes issue with the idea that all sex-trade linked migration is "trafficking" with violence and abuse. She also asks whether the "rescue industry" of NGOs and social agencies is itself victimising women in the sex trade. Agustin looks at migrants in the sex trade as part of--- not a distinct, morally-charged realm ---a larger issue of migration and job-seeking. Her website is worth looking at for further examples of th...more
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