That thin line between coercion and consensus. The case of brazilian travestis trafficking

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Emanuela Abbatecola
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/1
Language Italian Pages 28 P. 227-247 File size 230 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2018-001011
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The debate of migrants exploitation in the sex markets has long been affected by opposing positioning not very inclined to dialogue, as well as the lack of recognition of the multiple and porous nature of the experiences. The studies on sex trafficking - as well as the (few) researches on migrant sex work - find it hard to find full citizenship in migrations studies, and the reflections on the violence that exploited foreigners have to face are not infrequently looked with suspicion as considered moralistic attempts to obscure the agency of migrants. What dignity do the research on the involvement of foreign people in the sex markets have in the field of migration studies? How are foreign women who sell sex represented? Are migrants exploited in the sex markets perceived as slaves or migrants? What is the boundary between coercion and freedom? Can exploitation and agency coexist? Does the "eternal" debate prosex work vs. antitrafficking still make any sense? In this essay I will try to answer these questions, inspired by a research in Brazil, on Brazilian travestis exploited in the sex markets, carried out within the framework of a European project (Etts). The case of the travestis, very similar to the most well-known phenomenon of Nigerian trafficking and almost absent from the Italian debate, makes it possible to reflect on the porosity of the boundaries between coercion and consensus and the many ambivalences present in trafficking.

Keywords: Trafficking, exploitation, agency, migrants, brazilian travesti, gender violence.

  1. Abbatecola E. (2018). Trans-migrazioni. Sfruttamento e violenza di genere nei mercati globali del sesso. Firenze: Rosemberg & Sellier.
  2. Abbatecola E. (2012). Globalizzazione e prostituzioni migranti. In: Cipolla C., Ruspini E., a cura di. cit.
  3. Abbatecola E. (2010). a cura di, Gli scenari delle prostituzioni straniere. Mondi Migranti, 10, 1: 135-152.
  4. Abbatecola E. (2006). L’Altra donna. Prostituzioni straniere in contesti metropolitani. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  5. Abbatecola E. (2005a). Donne al margine. La prostituzione straniera a Genova. Genova: Fratelli Frilli.
  6. Abbatecola E. (2005b). L’alterità molteplice. Percorsi di inserimento lavorativo delle migranti vittime di tratta. Polis, 19, 1: 31-57.
  7. Abbatecola E., Benasso S. e Pidello C., eds. (2014). The Sex Markets: Trafficking, Sexual Tourism and Clients in the Globalisation Era. Final Report, Etts European Project.
  8. Agustín L. (2007). Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. London: Zed Books.
  9. Alpes M.J. (2008). The Traffic in Voices: Contrasting Experiences of Migrant Women in Prostitution with the Paradigm of Human Trafficking. Human Security Journal, 6: 34-45.
  10. Ambrosini M. (2011). Sociologia delle migrazioni. Bologna: il Mulino.
  11. Ambrosini M. e Abbatecola E., a cura di (2009). Migrazioni e società: una rassegna di studi internazionali. Milano: FrancoAngeli,
  12. Andrijasevic R. e May N. (2016). Editorial. Trafficking (in) Representations: understanding the recurring appeal of victimhood and slavery in neoliberal times. Anti-Trafficking Review, 7:1-9.
  13. Barry K. (1979). Female sexual slavery. New York: New York University Press.
  14. Berstein E. (2009). Temporaneamente Tua. Intimità, autenticità e commercio del sesso. Bologna: Odoya.
  15. Bimbi F. (2001). Prostituzione, migrazioni e relazioni di genere. Polis, 15, 1:13-34.
  16. Caldas D., a cura di (1997). Homens. Sao Paulo: Senac.
  17. Castles S. (2009). Le migrazioni internazionali agli inizi del XXI secolo: tendenze e questioni globali. In: Ambrosini M. e Abbatecola E., a cura di, cit.: 43-63.
  18. Chapkis W. (1997). Life Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. London and New York: Routledge.
  19. Cipolla C. e Ruspini E., a cura di (2012). Prostituzioni visibili e invisibili. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  20. Cojocaru C. (2016). My Experience is Mine to Tell: challenging the abolitionist victimhood framework. Anti-Trafficking Review, 7: 12-38;
  21. Colombo A. e Sciortino G., a cura di (2002). Stranieri in Italia: assimilati ed esclusi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  22. Costantinou A.G. (2013). Cyprus and the Global Polemics of Sex Trade and Sex Trafficking: Colonial and Postcolonial Connection. International Criminal Justice Review, 23, 3: 280-294.
  23. Desyllas M. C. (2007). A Critique of the Global Trafficking Discourse and U.S. Policy. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 34: 54-79.
  24. Ditmore M. (2005). Trafficking in Lifes: How Ideology Shapes Policy. In: Kempadoo K., Sanghera J., Pattanak B., eds., cit.
  25. Ditmore M., Levy A., Willman A., eds. (2010). Sex Works Matters. Exploring Money, Power and Intimacy in the Sex Industry. London and NY: Zed Books.
  26. Dobson et. al. (2001). International Migrations and the United Kingdom: Recent Patterns and Trends. London: Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.
  27. Doezema J. (2002). Who Get to Choose? Coertion, Consent and the UN Trafficking Protocol. Gender and Development, 10: 20-27.
  28. Doezema J. (1998). Forced to Choose: Beyond the Free vs. Forced Prostitution Dichotomy. In: Kempadoo K. e Doezema J., eds., cit.
  29. Dworkin A. (1981). Pornography: Men possessing women. Leeds: Lowe-Brydone.
  30. Farley M. et al. (1998). Prostitution in five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Women and Health, 27: 37-49.
  31. Garcia M.R.V. and Lehman Y.P. (2011). Issues Concerning the Informality and Outdoor Sexwork Performed by Travesties in Sao Palo, Brasil. Springer, 40: 1211-1221.
  32. Green J.N. (2001). Beyond carnival: Male homosexuality in twentieth-century Brazil. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  33. Jeffreys S. (1997). The idea of prostitution. North Melbourne. Australia: Spinifex.
  34. Kempadoo K. e Doezema J., eds. (1998). Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition. London and New York: Routledge
  35. Kempadoo K., Sanghera J., Pattanak B., a cura di (2005). Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migrations, Sex Work and Human Rights. Boulder CO: Paradigm Press.
  36. Koken J.A. (2010). The Meaning of the “Whore”: How Feminist Theories on Prostitution Shape Research on Female Sex Workers. In: Ditmore M., Levy A., Willman A., eds, cit.
  37. Lo Iacono E. (2014). Victims, sex workers and perpetrators. Gray areas in the trafficking of nigerian women. Trends Organ Crim, 17: 110-128.
  38. Mac Kinnon C. (1989). Sexuality, Pornography and method: «pleasure under patriarchy». Ethics, 99, 2: 314-346.
  39. Massey D. (2002). La ricerca sulle migrazioni nel XXI secolo. In: Colombo A. e Sciortino G., a cura di, cit.
  40. McLeod E. (1982). Women working: Prostitution now. London: Croom Helm.
  41. Millet K. (1973). The prostitution papers. New York: Avon Books.
  42. O’ Connell Davidson, J. (2008). Trafficking, Modern Slavery and the Human Security Agenda. Human Security Journal, 6: 8-15.
  43. O’ Connell Davidson J. (2006). Men, middlemen, and migrants. The demand side of ‘sex trafficking’. Eurozine, www.eurozine.com.
  44. Obert O. (2012). La prostituzione transessuale. In: Cipolla and Ruspini, cit.
  45. Outshoorn J. (2005). The Political Debates on Prostitutions and Trafficking of Women. Social Politics, 12: 141-55.
  46. Pateman C. (1988). The sexual contract. Palo Alto: Standford University Press.
  47. Pegna S. (2006). Perchè lo sai perchè in Europa è meglio: le transessuali brasiliane in Versilia. Polis, 1: 59-81.
  48. Pélucio L. (2009). Abjecao e Desejo: uma etnografia travesti sobre o modelo preventivo de aids. Sao Paulo: Annablume, Fapesp.
  49. Pidello C. (2014). Brazilian Transgender and Transsexuals: Migrants or traffickers?. In: Abbatecola E., Benasso S., Pidello C., eds., cit.
  50. Piscitelli A. e Texeira F. (2010). Passi che risuonano sui marciapiedi: la migrazione delle transgender brasiliane verso l’Italia. In: Abbatecola E. (2010), a cura di, cit.: 135-152.
  51. Sanders T. (2005). It’s Just Acting: Sex Workers’ Strategies for Capitalizing on Sexuality. Gender, Work and Organization, 12: 319-42.
  52. Secretaria Nacional de Justiça (Governo do Brasil) (2009). Tràfico de pessoas: critérios e fatores de identificação de supostas vitimas. Brasilia: Secretaria Nacional de Justiça.
  53. Selmi G. (2016). Sex work. Il farsi lavoro della sessualità. Bologna: Bébert.
  54. Serughetti G. (2013). Uomini che pagano le donne. Dalla strada al web, i clienti nel mercato del sesso contemporanei. Roma: Ediesse.
  55. Silva Hélio R.S. (2007). Travesti: entre o espelho e a rua. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco.
  56. Sullivan B. (1997). The politics of sex: Prostitution and pornography in Australia since 1945, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
  57. Tatafiore R. (2012). Sesso al lavoro. La prostituzione al tempo della crisi, (a cura di Sarasini B.). Milano: Il Saggiatore.
  58. Teixeira F. do B. (2008). L’Italia dei Divieti: entre o sonho de ser européia e o babado da prostituição. Caderno Pagu-Unicamp: 275-308; DOI: 10.1590/S0104-83332008000200013
  59. Trevisan J.S. (1997). O espetaculo de dejejo: homossexualidade e crise do masculino. In: Caldas D., a cura di, cit.
  60. Vanwesenbeeck I. (2001). Another Decade of Social Scientific Work on Sex Work: A Review of Research 1990-2000. Annual Review of Sex Research, 12: 242-89; DOI: 10.1080/10532528.2001.10559799
  61. Zanfrini L. (2004). Sociologia delle migrazioni. Bari: Laterza

Emanuela Abbatecola, Quella linea sottile tra coazione e consenso. Il caso della tratta delle travesti brasiliane in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 1/2018, pp 227-247, DOI: 10.3280/MM2018-001011