[An excellent paper by Laura Agustín from the Border Thinking on Migration, Culture, Economy and Sex blog.]

There is a strong demand for women’s domestic, caring and sexual labour in Europe which promotes migrations from many parts of the world. This paper examines the history of concepts that marginalise these as unproductive services (and not really ‘work’) and questions why the west accepts the semi-feudal conditions and lack of regulations pertaining to this sector. The moral panic on ‘trafficking’ and the limited feminist debate on ‘prostitution’ contribute to a climate that ignores the social problems of the majority of women migrants. Read the article here

Social Politics, 10, 3, 377-96 (2004)