Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women

This essay critically examines the blurred boundaries – or the analytical shadow lines – in scholarly and popular conceptualizations of Asian women migrants. I ask what women who migrate from the global South to the North as maids, brides, or sex workers have in common? How important are the commona...

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Main Author: Nicole Constable
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UTS ePRESS 2006-09-01
Series:PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/164
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author Nicole Constable
author_facet Nicole Constable
author_sort Nicole Constable
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description This essay critically examines the blurred boundaries – or the analytical shadow lines – in scholarly and popular conceptualizations of Asian women migrants. I ask what women who migrate from the global South to the North as maids, brides, or sex workers have in common? How important are the commonalities and the distinctions between them? When are such blurs warranted, and what are the implications of such blurs for women’s self-perceptions and life experiences, for feminist scholarship, and for immigration policies? Drawing from ethnographic field research among Chinese and Filipina correspondence brides, Filipina domestic workers, and from the wider literature on sex workers, this essay considers some of the problems with a ‘trafficking’ framework, and considers the analytical and ethnographic possibilities that emerge with closer examination of the real and imagined shadow lines between sex workers, domestic workers, and migrant brides.
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spelling doaj.art-677df187392c416bb5e90c4adaf785732022-12-22T03:23:56ZengUTS ePRESSPORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies1449-24902006-09-0132Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' WomenNicole ConstableThis essay critically examines the blurred boundaries – or the analytical shadow lines – in scholarly and popular conceptualizations of Asian women migrants. I ask what women who migrate from the global South to the North as maids, brides, or sex workers have in common? How important are the commonalities and the distinctions between them? When are such blurs warranted, and what are the implications of such blurs for women’s self-perceptions and life experiences, for feminist scholarship, and for immigration policies? Drawing from ethnographic field research among Chinese and Filipina correspondence brides, Filipina domestic workers, and from the wider literature on sex workers, this essay considers some of the problems with a ‘trafficking’ framework, and considers the analytical and ethnographic possibilities that emerge with closer examination of the real and imagined shadow lines between sex workers, domestic workers, and migrant brides.http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/164gendered migration, ‘mail order brides,’ domestic workers, sex workers, trafficking
spellingShingle Nicole Constable
Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies
gendered migration, ‘mail order brides,’ domestic workers, sex workers, trafficking
title Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
title_full Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
title_fullStr Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
title_full_unstemmed Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
title_short Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
title_sort brides maids and prostitutes reflections on the study of trafficked women
topic gendered migration, ‘mail order brides,’ domestic workers, sex workers, trafficking
url http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/164
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