Trafficking, migration and the sex industry: Framing the questions, Providing the proofs Wednesday, March 10, 2010 6:45pm - 9:00pm Rockefeller University, Weiss Building Room 305 York avenue at 66th St: Enter the campus at 66th Street Subway: Lexington Avenue Local #6 to 68th Street/Lexington Avenue Station; walk east
Buses: M31 (York Avenue/57th St crosstown) and M66 (68th St crosstown)
Contact: pugwash at rockefeller.edu
About the speaker: Laura Agustín is author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry (Zed Books 2007).
Laura Agustín studies cultural, sexual and postcolonial issues linking commercial sex, migration, informal economies and feminist theory. Her research amongst migrants and social helpers challenges several contemporary myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are always passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest.
Agustín argues that the label 'trafficked' does not describe migrants' lives and that a Rescue Industry disempowers them. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants prefer to work in the sex industry to their other options, and, despite being treated like a marginalised group, they form part of a dynamic global economy. Her blog Border Thinking on Migration, Trafficking and Commercial Sex is visited by 1500 people daily: http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin/