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Book Cover
E-book
Author Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar.

Title Illicit flirtations : labor, migration, and sex trafficking in Tokyo / Rhacel Salazar Parreñas
Published Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, ©2011

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Description 1 online resource (571 pages)
Contents Introduction : the indentured mobility of migrant hostesses -- The migration of entertainers to Japan -- The labor system in hostess clubs -- Buttressing masculinity -- The risky business of love -- Cultures of flirtation -- Making love for a visa -- The invisibility of hostesses -- The segregation of hostesses -- Conclusion : ensuring the safe passage of migrant hostesses
Summary "In 2004, the U.S. State Department declared Filipina hostesses in Japan the largest group of sex trafficked persons in the world. Since receiving this global attention, the number of hostesses entering Japan has dropped by nearly 90 percent--from more than 80,000 in 2004 to just over 8,000 today. To some, this might suggest a victory for the global anti-trafficking campaign, but Rhacel Parreñas counters that this drastic decline--which stripped thousands of migrants of their livelihoods--is in truth a setback. Parreñas worked alongside hostesses in a working-class club in Tokyo's red-light district, serving drinks, singing karaoke, and entertaining her customers, including members of the yakuza, the Japanese crime syndicate. While the common assumption has been that these hostess bars are hotbeds of sexual trafficking, Parreñas quickly discovered a different world of working migrant women, there by choice, and, most importantly, where none were coerced into prostitution. But this is not to say that the hostesses were not vulnerable in other ways. Illicit Flirtations challenges our understandings of human trafficking and calls into question the U.S. policy to broadly label these women as sex trafficked. It highlights how in imposing top-down legal constraints to solve the perceived problems--including laws that push dependence on migrant brokers, guest worker policies that bind migrants to an employer, marriage laws that limit the integration of migrants, and measures that criminalize undocumented migrants--many women become more vulnerable to exploitation, not less. It is not the jobs themselves, but the regulation that makes migrants susceptible to trafficking. If we are to end the exploitation of people, we first need to understand the actual experiences of migrants, not rest on global policy statements. This book gives a long overdue look into the real world of those labeled as trafficked"--Provided by publisher
Analysis Women
Philippines
Migrant labour
Sex industry
People trafficking
Tokyo
Working conditions
Legislation
Overseas item
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
SUBJECT Chūkintō-Bunka-Sentā gnd
Subject Women foreign workers -- Japan -- Tokyo
Foreign workers, Filipino -- Japan -- Tokyo
Hostess clubs -- Japan -- Tokyo
Human trafficking -- Japan -- Tokyo
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Labor.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Labor & Industrial Relations.
Foreign workers, Filipino
Hostess clubs
Human trafficking
Women foreign workers
Junge Frau
Arbeitsmobilität
Frauenhandel
Nachtklub
Japan -- Tokyo
Philippinen
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780804778169
0804778167