Report on Migrant Sex Workers Justice and the Trouble With “Anti-Trafficking": Research, Activism, Art
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SHIFTING THE FRAME TO JUSTICE-BASED APPROACHES TO MIGRANT SEX WORK
We are currently awash in a sea of sensationalist misinformation about the realities of migrants in the sex trade—misinformation that informs legal and social politics. Rarely do we hear the voices of migrant sex workers themselves or unbiased evidence-based research. In May 2015, The Migrant Sex Workers Project hosted an evening of discussion, research and story sharing from migrant sex workers. This report summarizes the findings and stories of that evening. We hope this report helps us to highlight how justice-based frameworks help us make more informed decisions that support the safety and dignity of all sex workers regardless of immigration status. |
About The Migrant Sex Worker Project
We are a grassroots group of migrants, sex workers, and allies who demand safety and dignity for all sex workers regardless of immigration status. We use a justice based framework that places sex worker rights on equal footing against racism, settler colonialism and border imperialism. We are creating tools that migrant sex workers use to protect themselves against human rights violations, educating the public about the dangers of anti-trafficking and advocating to change policies that hurt and exploit migrants in the sex trade.
Stereotypes of enslaved migrant workers are used by sex work prohibitionists as a means to dismiss the mainstream sex worker movement as “happy hookers” who are out of touch with the realities of the harsher side of the sex trade. 
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How and Why?The Migrant Sex Worker Project was formed when three long time grassroots activists came together to deal with problems facing migrants in the sex trade. It brought together organizers from sex work, migrant justice, and migrant sex work justice.
Migrants comprise a large percentage of sex workers in the United States and Canada, yet they are largely absent from the North American both the sex worker rights movement and migrant workers movements. Facing greater risks of criminalization and deportation, as well as language and cultural barriers, it is no wonder that migrant sex workers have met with greater difficulty when it comes to organizing. Yet the lack of representation of migrants in the mainstream sex worker and worker movement has made it easier for sex work prohibitionists to appropriate their experiences within the anti-trafficking movement. Assumed to always be trafficking victims, migrant sex workers are spoken over by saviours who presume to represent them. Stereotypes of enslaved migrant workers are used by sex work prohibitionists as a means to dismiss the mainstream sex worker movement as “happy hookers” who are out of touch with the realities of the harsher side of the sex trade. We came together at a time when the old sex work laws had been struck down and there was the possibility of creating something new and visionary that supported the lives of migrant sex workers. We saw the potential of bringing together migrant justice and sex work justice to counter the dominance of anti-trafficking propaganda, policies and their harmful effects. |
What is a migrant sex worker?
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A migrant sex worker is anyone who has left where they live to go to another place (either through formal or informal avenues) and also works in the sex industry. We are of all genders but are more likely to be women (both cisgender and transgender).
Currently migrants work in every sector of the sex industry in Canada. They work in strip clubs, condos, the streets, the internet, massage parlours and dungeons. They are from everywhere in the world. Some are pushed out of their home country because of poverty, war, discrimination or violence. Some are refugees and some leave because they aspire to a better life for themselves and their family. Migrant sex workers are frequently racialized, poor, and working class women. They often face struggles with immigration, housing, and accessing health services and labour protections. |
Migrant sex workers are members of our society and they are our neighbours. |
Justice-Based Perspectives on the Anti Trafficking Movement
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Most migrant sex workers are a lot like all other sex workers - they engage in work that is not
always “happy” or safe, yet it is nevertheless an economic choice made within a limited range of labor options. While they may often face various forms of exploitation in their workspaces, the vast majority of migrant sex workers are not victims of human trafficking. The dual criminalization of immigration status and anti-sex work laws make it doubly dangerous for migrant sex workers to be visible. However, their invisibility only serves to highlight the importance of decriminalization, which is necessary to bring their circumstances to light, safely out from the underground, by offering them protection and labor rights regardless of immigration status. We don’t believe that the anti trafficking movement is a “broken” system. We think it is an intentional and effective system that serves the interests of business, government, and non-profits in wealthy “western” countries. Central to these interests is the control over the movement of migrants from the global south to the north. The elite in wealthy northern countries use political and economic force to extract resources from the south then militarize the borders to retain control over those resources. This also ensures the availability of an impoverished pool of highly exploitable, disposable temporary workers. “Anti trafficking” is a way to control the movement and labour of migrant women in particular. Some anti traffickers are genuinely well meaning but they are being used in the service of a larger project. As a result, the strategies to resist the anti-trafficking movement cannot be based on "raising awareness" alone but must address shifting power toward those most directly impacted. |
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Justice-Based Frameworks in Service Provision
In the afternoon prior to the public forum, we hosted a closed meeting that brought together organizations and individuals who work with migrant sex workers, offering services, support and advocacy and wanted to learn about a justice-based approach to their work. We discussed the justice-based vs, anti trafficking approaches, built connections with others doing similar work and created a space where we could start to share resources, practices on changing tactics. The meeting was attended by representatives of social service agencies, researchers, members of labour unions and other who want to change conditions for migrant sex workers.
public Forum
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Butterfly Voices: Collecting Stories of Migrant Sex Workers Around The World Alvis Choi, Community Artist Butterfly (Asian and MIgrant Sex Workers Support Network) advocates for, the rights of Asian and migrant sex workers. The organization is founded upon the belief that sex workers are entitled to respect and basic human rights. Butterfly asserts that, regardless of their immigration status, Asian and migrant sex workers should be treated like all other workers. Butterfly invited self-identified sex workers around the world to participate in the “Butterfly Voices” project where we collect voices of migrant workers, who are often silenced because of the lack of understanding, systemic oppression, and stigma in society. Community artist Alvis Choi created an installation to showcase a collection of art and stories created and shared by migrant sex workers. Each butterfly, drawn by Toronto-based artist Sarah Mangle, was coloured and decorated by participants. Together, with their responses to our call for thoughts, each butterfly represents the voices of migrant sex workers. We recognize that making space for migrant sex workers to speak for themselves is a critical and foundational part of our activism. Each of the submissions that we received has a significant voice and impact in the reduction and ultimately the removal of stigma of migrant sex workers. With this in mind, we invite you to enjoy the outcome of the first phase of Butterfly Voices. |
I wish for good health and an income, bringing no burden to society. I hope to provide good services to my clients and society with my strengths”. |
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The Politics of Anti-trafficking
Kamala Kempadoo Professor in the Department of Social Science at York University, Canada. Former director of the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought. For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: All too often, migrant sex workers are raided and criminalized in the guise of anti-trafficking initiatives. From its onset in the 1950’s, the dominant discourse surrounding trafficking has repeatedly been redefined using language of slavery, exploitation, and violence against women, to serve racist immigration policies. These narratives are expressed through national and international laws and appeal to the morality of our highest courts and governing bodies. We should stop trying to make policies and laws that are premised on the politics of exclusion. We should not be trying to separate trafficking from work, because even that presupposes the idea that trafficking can exists, and that there can be such a thing of absolute freedom. I suggest that we get rid of trafficking altogether, and use the language of migrants, debt bondage and criminalized migration. |
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Impacts of the Anti-Trafficking Discourse on Im/migrant Sex Workers in Vancouver
Alison Clancey Executive Director, SWAN Vancouver, sex work activist SWAN Vancouver Society supports im/migrant women engaged in indoor sex work, advocate for the decriminalization of sex work, and celebrate the role of im/migrant women in the sex worker movement and community. For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: The mainstream discourse surrounding migrant sex workers infantilizes and criminalizes the identities and the experiences of migrant sex workers. Anti-trafficking initiatives reinforce racist stereotypes and place sex workers in harms way. In preparation of the Vancouver Olympics, we saw an increase in anti-trafficking ad campaigns. This was a fear-mongering tactic that resulted in the murder and displacement of many migrant sex workers, due to unprecedented raids on massage parlors that placed women in precarious situations. Fear of being criminalized means that sex workers are often afraid to have safer sex materials in their work places, and are less likely to report instances of abuse or exploitation. Anti-trafficking funding often reflects an anti-sex work framework, thereby limiting the organizing that sex workers can do to protect themselves and advocate for positive change. Vancouver provides an example of how city collaboration with sex workers is possible in combating violence. |
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Impacts of the Anti-Trafficking Discourse on Im/migrant Sex Workers in Vancouver
Kate Zen sex work, labour and immigrant rights community organizer and writer For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: American law has heavily influenced Canadian human tracking law. Laws and their related process fund law enforcement border controls, militarize humanitarianism, and result in harm to the people that they claim to be helping. Discriminatory policing results when law enforcement are in charge of delivering services to sex workers. The voices of migrant sex workers are silenced by the need for migrants to perform as a conceptualized victim, as evidenced by New York Human Trafficking Intervention Courts and other diversion programs. Funding for anti-trafficking initiatives is being absorbed by policing and has resulted in increased general surveillance. Anti-trafficking law as we understand it today made a big push around the year 2000, however, similar examples of racist immigration agendas being veiled in moral panic can be spotted throughout the women’s rights movement. This is a global justice issue. Dominant discourses and media conflate the relationship between trafficking and criminal activity, while neglecting to acknowledge the real economic justice issues and the criminalization of sex workers. We are talking about economic justice, borders, and unequal distribution of resources. |
The mainstream discourse surrounding migrant sex workers infantilizes and criminalizes the identities and the experiences of migrant sex workers. Anti-trafficking initiatives reinforce racist stereotypes and place sex workers in harms way.
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Migrant Farm Workers and Migrant Sex Workers
Tzazná Miranda Leal Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) and the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: In order to supplement low wages and support families back home, we often see the intersection of migrant farm work and migrant sex work. Government funded anti-trafficking NGO’s harm migrant sex workers. The anti-sex work sentiment of their funding bodies shape services and philosophies. They refuse to acknowledge that sex work in a form of labor, and present labor exploitation as human trafficking. The paternalist framework of government towards temporary foreign workers is justified in the guise of exploitation prevention. However, these actions and policies harm migrant workers by tying them to one employer and restricting opportunities for upward mobility. Defund human trafficking work, and put it into enforcement of labor rights of all migrant workers. |
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Anti-anti-trafficking and migrant sex
workers Justice Elene Lam Co-founder of Migrant Sex Workers Project, founder of Butterfly For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: Migrant sex work is often a form of resistance to gender, race, and labour-based oppression. It is often the best and most empowering choice as an alternative to marriage or exploitative work in a factory, for a number of reasons. The anti-trafficking movement harms sex workers and often involves arrest, detention and deportation. Migrant sex workers are brilliant in their resistance to oppression from police abuse or exploitation within their workplace, but criminalization of sex work and migration makes them more vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace and less able to support their community and protect themselves. We need to see sex work as work and recognize that exploitation occurs in all workplaces. The impulse to rescue sex workers, especially youth, Indigenous, or migrant sex workers is rooted in racism that makes rescuers believe they know best what these sex workers need and takes away the ability of migrant sex workers to make decisions about their own lives. We need to create resources and fund migrant sex workers so that they can advocate for themselves. |
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Where should we go from here?
Migrant Sex Workers Justice Chanelle Gallant, co-founder Migrant Sex Workers Project For the full talk, please view video to the left. Summary: Migrant Sex Workers face injustice at every turn. They are over policed, denied services, and endure raids that often result in deportation. Migrant sex worker are not reporting to police, but they are talking to Elene Lam with our sister project Butterfly, who has reached out to over 200 migrant sex workers. Butterfly demands non-enforcement of new migrant sex work laws, labor rights and protection for migrant sex workers. This is a critical time, where the police report that 11 women are to be deported after a raid at a massage parlor in Ottawa. |
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Full participant biographies
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Alison Clancey is a sex work activist based in Vancouver. She works as a Community Developer with Living in Community whose model of community development on sex work related issues has been recognized by British Columbia’s Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry as a model that other communities in British Columbia should adopt. The provincial work is underway with plans to expand to other parts of Canada in the coming years. However tonight she is here representing SWAN Vancouver Society where she is the Executive Director. SWAN supports newcomer, migrant and immigrant women engaged in indoor sex work.Full participant biographies:
Elene Lam who has advocated for the sex workers, migrant, labour and gender justice for more than 15 years. She is the co-founder of migrant sex workers project, founder of Butterfly which is an Asian and Migrant sex workers support network. Chanelle Gallant has been an activist, educator and community builder in feminist and sex working communities for over a decade in Canada, the US and Thailand who's work has led to policy changes in the Toronto police department. She is the co-founder of the Migrant Sex Worker Project in Toronto and co-director of sex work advocacy group STRUT. She is on the board of the Harm Reduction/Transformative Justice Project and is a public speaker and writer on the intersections of sex work. She also answers to the names: rabble-rouser, fallen woman, comrade and sister. Kamala Kempadoo is Professor in the Department of Social Science at York University, Canada, and a former director of the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought. She is specialized in sociology, race and ethnic studies, and transnational feminist theory, with a special focus on sex work studies. She has published and speaks widely on sex worker’s rights and human trafficking from critical antiracist and transnational feminist perspectives. Kamala has lived and worked in Britain, the Netherlands, USA, several countries in the Dutch- and English-speaking Caribbean, and, since 2002, in Canada. |
Kate Zen is a community organizer and writer living in New York City. She has been engaged with immigrant and labor rights organizing in the Asian American community for the past 12 years, including co-founding the Chinatown Literacy Project in 2004. She has also participated in the sex worker rights movement, working in the past at the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, the Red Umbrella Project, Streetwise and Safe, and the Sex Workers Outreach Project.
Tzazna Miranda Leal is an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) and the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change who is based in Toronto. Ms. Miranda Leal is a community-based activist originally from Mexico. For the past eight years, she has been organizing with J4MW, working with migrant farm and food workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, the Caribbean, Philippines and Thailand. Since this year, Ms Miranda Leal started working as an organizer for the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and is currently working on a campaign against the Federal Government’s 4 and 4 rule that will exclude migrant workers from working in Canada after having being here for 4 years. Thank you to: Emily van der Meulen, Ryerson Dept. of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Jean McDonald, of Maggies: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project for financial support and moderation, volunteers who assisted with coordination, donors and participants! |