ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses economic policies that are signified by terms like ‘neoliberalism’ and ‘globalisation’, and the relationship of these policies to sexual commerce. The relationship is generally theorised as being one of increasing proportions, i.e., that ‘neoliberalism’ leads to an increase in sexual commerce and, worse, to the heightened exploitation and ‘trafficking’ of women (as opposed to people of other genders) who sell sexual services. Instead, this chapter shows that the relationship between ‘neoliberalism’ and sexual commerce is varied and complex. The challenges in delineating a clear relationship between these two phenomena are compounded by the fact that both sets of terms are disputed, vague, or both. The chapter begins by defining the terms, and then discusses how they may be seen to relate to one another. The writer’s premise is that what is called ‘neoliberalism’ or ‘globalisation’ is not new but, rather, that the economic policies that have been bundled together under the moniker of ‘free trade’ since the late 1970s have reified national borders in a new way, with negative consequences for poor migrant workers. Whereas these policies have facilitated the cheaper and more voluminous movement of goods and services across national borders, they have also made the migration of people a more difficult and more highly surveilled affair. The difficulties attendant to cross-border migration affect all migrants working informally and illegally, including those negotiating their livelihoods through sexual commerce. Furthermore, the impacts that neoliberal economic policies have had on national economies, and especially on those surviving at or below the poverty line, have impacted sex workers as well as other informal sector workers who may or may not be migrants themselves.
