Selling Sex for Visas Flashcards
What are some push/pull factors for women’s entry into sex work?
Promise of money
Rural to urban migration
Dream of marrying rich, foreign man
Sex tourism
tourism for the sole purpose of taking advantage of lenient prostitution laws and sexual practices
What is the distinction between sex work and prostitution?
Prostitution - a pimp acts as a manager for girls, with the girls facing repercussions/punishments
Sex Work - sex worker decides when, where, who, and how much for their work; do not necessarily have pimps whom they must pay
How is sex work used by women as a means to survival or mobility?
Women turn to sex work to improve their financial life, move to a different country/city, to escape familial oppression
Labor Trafficking
Using force, fraud or coercion to recruit, transport or employ a person for labor in involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery
Sex Trafficking
Commercial sex act induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which person performing the act is under age 18
Smuggling vs. Trafficking
Trafficking involves ongoing exploitation, labor against the person’s will for the benefit of the trafficker, no movement necessary, crime against the person rather than the state
What are three forms of human trafficking?
Labor exploitation
Forced/servile marriages
Sexual exploitation
What are some examples of sexual exploitation in human trafficking?
prostitution/brothels/sex tourism
massage parlors/tanning salons
pornography
What are some examples of labor exploitation in human trafficking?
domestic servitude
agriculture/construction/manufacturing
restaurant/salon work
What are some examples of forced/servile marriages in human trafficking?
“mail order brides”/arranged marriages
Trafficking Victims Protection Act
signed into law Oct. 2000
made human trafficking federal law
provided immigration relief for “victims of a severe form of trafficking”
goals included increased rates of human trafficking persecutions in US, provide federal/state assistance to victims
What are barriers that prevent and escape from human trafficking?
language/geographical barriers
threats/shame/stigma/distrust
isolation/supervision/imprisonment
unaware of rights/loyalty as coping mechanism
MD Eastern Shore Conditions
In 2007, 56% of MD crab companies used H-2B workers
80+ hrs/week, no public transportation, rely on employers for groceries/ medical care
$2 - $2.25/lb of crab meat picked
What are push factors of migration?
poverty/famine/disease
political/civil unrest
religious/ethnic/gender persecution
