The turn of the 21st century has seen overwhemlingly postive developments within the criminalized landscape sex workers are forced to navigate, with Mexico and parts of Australia joining New Zealand in decriminalising sex work - for most but not all sex workers. Largely unrecognized are the populations within our community, such as migrant and street based sex workers, who have been excluded from these legislative efforts and remain criminalized. Today we speak to Kelly Gillespie from non-profit Wistle Women about their new program supporting migrant sex workers, existing issues with migration pathways and borders, and how this impacts migrant sex workers.
What is Wistle Women and how did you come to start it?
WISTLE is a 501c3 non-profit that offers free, 1:1 English lessons to migrant sex-workers based in the Americas. We started in January 2022, so we are fairly new organization but have spent the year prior designing our curriculum, compiling resources, and creating training programs for volunteer tutors. Once our students are matched with volunteer tutors, they meet 1-2x a week over the course of 6 weeks. If a student wants to renew, they are welcome to learn with us for as long as they would like! In addition, our volunteers undergo a criminal background check, interview, and onboarding/training process to ensure that they can be a part of a greater support network and provide the best educational services that are underpinned by trauma-informed and gender sensitive practices. Our ultimate goal is to foster a safe, positive community among migrant sex workers and give them the language skills necessary to navigate potentially dangerous/complex situations.
How would you describe the relationship between migration, borders and sex work?
All across the globe, people are driven to migrate by poverty and inequitable conditions in their host countries (it’s worth noting that this phenomenon is only exacerbated by capitalism and globalization). Leaving one’s home country is never an easy decision, yet many migrant women have cited the following reasons for doing so: gender inequity and/or regimes that criminalize them for their work, gender identities, and/or sexual orientation. For instance, in Spain, 90% of sex workers noted that they migrated for better living conditions, while many sex workers from El Salvador and Guatemala have reported moving to Nicaragua to escape police brutality and the threat of murder. The UN Declaration of Human Rights purports that “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work,” yet quite rarely does this human rights framework extend to sex workers. Rather, their labor is hardly viewed as a part of the global migration flow and this results in limited access to legal means of migration, thus resulting in an increased reliance on third party agents. Lack of legal recourse means that migrant sex workers are consistently subjected to abuse, exploitation, and coercion; their struggle is multiplied in a world that stigmatizes their legal status and their nature of work.
It is well known that bad actors often manufacture moral panic for economic, political and/or social gain. How do you see politics of fear, specifically concerning “sex trafficking”, impacting or interacting with migrant sex workers?
As stated above, limited access to migration pathways results in higher reliance on third party agents or “smugglers.” This has given birth to the “rescue industry,” underpinned by sex trafficking. While sex trafficking does persist in modern day society, not all women who are migrants and also engage in sex work were/are trafficked. This conflation of narratives allows carceral feminist to claim that ending sex work would magically equal the end of trafficking; instead, they have created a market for smuggling and unsafe/ precarious ways to migrate. Common discourse on trafficking consistently paints migrant sex workers as “kidnapped and enchained,” rather than simply trying to migrate for better working/living conditions: it is through this logic that legislation can dance around a more sincere, productive conversation on how pathways to migration can foster safer, more just routes and possibilities. Most instances of border reinforcement and policing function under the guise of anti-trafficking laws, when really, these borders make women more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. What anti-trafficking work entails is a far cry from “helping” women in the sex industry: raids meant to “rescue” result in incarceration or deportation. Juno Mac and Molly Smith said it best:
“There is no migrant solidarity without prostitute solidarity and there is no prostitute solidarity without migrant solidarity. The two struggles are inextricably bound up with one another.”
What issues do you see with current migration pathways?
In order to maintain perpetual exploitation of the working class, border control and harsh migration policies are always reinforcing the notion of the “other.” There is a seething irony in the fact that this nefarious act equally relies on and thrives off of the very same undocumented workers they deplore. To put it more succinctly: capitalism cannot succeed without oppressing and marginalizing certain groups, most notably, women of color. We live in a world in which our history as a collective humanity is rooted in migration and movement, yet modern day society is fixated on the notion of borders. Politicians and their accolades are forever drawing lines and distinctions between those who should and should not be able to migrate: most often, this arbitrary decision is based upon a person’s capacity to contribute to the economy, rather than their desire for a better life. Attempts to limit migration almost always result in fatal disasters: we have seen this from the shores of Bodrum, with Alan Kurdi’s body, to the tattered remains of clothing clinging to cacti in the New Mexico desert. Both migration and displacement will always remain in flux; this is a universal truth. What is not a universal truth is the ways in which we choose to welcome some and shun others through the oppressive regime of borderlands. Despite conservative dogma, borders do not function to protect, but rather divide.
In your opinion, what would reduce the violence experienced by migrant sex workers? What would you encourage folks to do to better support this community?
Voting for representatives/senates who support decriminalizing sex work is the most important, since this process makes sex work a starting point, not a crime and simultaneously prioritizes the well-being of sex workers. In addition, supporting the work of organizations that provide resources/social services (whether that support is financial or with your time), esp. if these resources include emergency response systems, is equally crucial.
Are there any advocacy groups or charitable organisations that you'd like us to give a shout out to?
I’d like to express my gratitude to orgs such as: TransEquity, Red Canary Song, The Cupcake Girls, and SWOP Behind Bars for their support and the work they are doing!
Where can folks find you?
Our website is: www.wistlewomen.org and we can be found on social media at @wistlewomen for both Instagram and Twitter. Our email is also [email protected]
Are you a sex worker or sw organization with resources, events or news to share? We'd love to hear from you!
We started the tryst.link sex worker blog to help amplify those who aren't handed the mic and bring attention to the issues ya'll care about the most. Got a tale to tell? 👇☂️✨
