Between October 2016 and September 2020 the project SEXHUM (Sexual Humanitarianism: Migration, Sex Work and Trafficking) funded by the European Research Council (ERC CoG 682451) studied the relationship between migration, sex work and human trafficking by analysing the understandings, experiences and priorities of the migrants who are directly involved. The project was hosted by Kingston University London (United Kingdom), while Aix-Marseille University (France) was involved as a partner institution.
SEXHUM’s main aim was to produce new emic (subject internal) concepts and data needed to develop innovative theorizations of migrant agency and more efficient and ethical policies addressing migrants working in the sex industry. SEXHUM also investigated the impact of anti-trafficking and other humanitarian and social interventions targeting migrant sex workers on their lives and rights.
SEXHUM met these two sets of aims through the following objectives:
1. gather qualitative data on a stigmatized and under-researched group, migrants working in the sex industry, including sexual minority migrants;
2. develop an innovative conceptual and social intervention framework to address the interplay between migration, sex work, exploitation and trafficking;
3. impact on existing social interventions addressing sex work, trafficking and asylum by producing and disseminating policy recommendations;
4. produce a definition and indicators of what constitutes exploitation in the sex industry that is informed by the experiences and understandings of migrant sex workers;
5. propose an innovative and collaborative ethical framework to study vulnerable populations and disseminate findings including film-making as a form of participative expression.
SEXHUM adopted an interdisciplinary approach bringing together visual anthropology, sociology, gender and queer studies and human geography to study the relationship between migration, sex work, exploitation and trafficking. The project took place in eight cities in Australia (Melbourne and Sydney), France (Marseille and Paris), New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington), and the United States (New York and Los Angeles), which are characterized by different policies on migration, sex work (criminalization, regulation, decriminalization) and trafficking. In order to meet its aims and objectives the project hired 6 postdoctoral researchers for 36 months to conduct fieldwork in each of the 4 national settings of the project. In each of these cities, the research team undertook ethnographic observations of emerging issues and interviewed migrant sex workers to understand their experiences and what needs to be done to improve their situation.
SEXHUM also adopted a creative methodological approach integrating ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviewing with collaborative ethnographic filmmaking (ethnofiction). By writing fictional characters and stories migrant sex workers expressed their experiences of agency and exploitation transcending the distinction between fiction and non-fiction, participation and observation, knowledge and emotions.
SEXHUM’s films were produced and edited in collaboration with associations representing communities of migrant sex workers in France and the United States.
