Labelling Migrants Who Sell Sex: A Case Study of Brazilians in Spain and Portugal by Julie Lima de Pérez - 2015

Maklu Publishers, 2015. Paperback. New Book. Paperback. A doctoral thesis in criminology adapted for publication, this is a case study of Brazilian migrants in Spain and Portugal who trade sex for money. The book's basic goal is to look at the relationship between migrants selling sex and victims of sex trafficking. The author examines how politics affects statistics: for instance the assumption that third world women are sexual victims and men are not creates a situation in which males and transvestites are recorded as migrant workers, and females as trafficked sex workers, regardless of whether there is evidence of sexual exploitation. As a result, the study must focus on women. The book takes a neutral stance on trading sex for money, recognizing it describes a range of activities from work to slavery. However, it strongly supports the idea that both left-wing and right-wing ideologies have confused sex trafficking victims, sex workers, and third-world migrants. The aim of the case study is to determine whether and how laws and statistics distinguish between migrants who do sex work and sex trafficking victims. Its finding is that for women they do not; while the rhetoric is human rights and protecting women, the practice is criminalizing income-generating sex work and halting migration, and the motivation is often prejudice. The author suggests that while the transfer of interest in migrants from migration studies to criminology is problematic, criminology may be of value in understanding whether, how, and why people in complex situations may or may not choose to identify as victims of crime, and how being identified as victims by outside interests may help or hurt them. The book is in English; a summary is printed in Dutch as an appendix. Distributed in the US by ISBS. (2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)