Benevolent Paternalism and Migrant Women: The Case of Migrant Filipina Entertainers in Japan by Rhacel Parrenas
The article examines the migration process of entertainers from the Philippines to Japan. It establishes the conditions of trafficking that leave foreign entertainers in a position of debt bondage and indenture vis-a-vis middleman brokers. Then,it shows how laws established to protect entertainers in the process of migration in fact make prospective migrants vulnerable to trafficking. This is because such protective laws, which are espoused by the culture of benevolent paternalism that...
Read MoreTrafficked? Filipino Hostesses in Tokyo’s Nightlife Industry by Rhacel Parrenas
After a few months in Tokyo, I became known as ate, meaning big sister, to man of the Filipino contract workers whom I met in the course of my research. Most were in their early twenties, but those older than me, including those who had returned to Japan more than ten times as contract workers and who were now in their late thirties, still called be “big sister.” They did so not necessarily out of respect but because they often forgot their real age, as they consistently have to...
Read MoreSexual Labors: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Toward Sex as Work by Rhacel Parrenas with Eileen Boris and Stephanie Gilmore
What constitutes ‘sex’ and defines ‘labor’ has varied across time and space, we have learned over the last 35 years through an explosion of monographs and articles in the history and sociology of sexuality and labor studies. But rarely has the new labor studies, with its attention to gender, race, and ethnicity and its consideration of unpaid as well as paid work, put sexual labors at the center of its focus. Even the rich literature on prostitution more likely has come out of women’s...
Read MoreThe indentured mobility of migrant women: How gendered protectionist laws lead Filipina hostesses to forced sexual labor by Rhacel Parrenas
In 2004, the U.S. State Department labeled migrant Filipina hostesses as sex trafficked persons. As the U.S. Trafficking in persons report (U.S. Department of State, 2004: 14) claimed, On arrival at their destination, victims are stripped of their passports and travel documents and forced into situations of sexual exploitation or bonded servitude. . . . For example, it is reported that Japan issued 55,000 entertainer visas to women from the Philippines in 2003, many of whom are suspected of...
Read MoreReview: Children in the Global Sex Trade by Rhacel Parrenas
With Children in the Global Sex Trade, Davidson adds to her growing corpus of works on globalization and prostitution a study on children in the global sex trade. Children in the Global Sex Trade
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