Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry

This groundbreaking book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest.

Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy.

Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.

• Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
• Policing Pleasure: Sex Work, Policy, and the State in Global Perspective
• Dominatrix: Gender, Eroticism, and Control in the Dungeon
• Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade
• Intimate Labors: Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care
• Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights
• Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader
• Sex For Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry
• Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality At The Border
• Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy