maiz has been working with migrant sex workers for 28 years and has been fighting since the beginning against the mixing of discussions on forced prostitution and against the victimisation of migrant sex workers. However, we are aware that as a migrant women’s self-organisation we cannot represent the interests of sex workers.

The problem of representation in this context must therefore always be reflected critically. However, we position ourselves as a migrant women’s self-organisation that has been working with migrant sex workers since its beginnings, and as a self-organisation of migrant women that links practical experience with theoretical and scientific debates. We are not interested in legitimising our speech by working with sex workers, we are interested in taking a political position.

It is about outrage!

We are outraged about the way (migrant) sex workers are talked about, outraged about the prevailing violent language that (re)produces prejudices, clichés and attributions and thus discriminates against and stigmatises sex workers, and especially migrants in sex work! We are outraged that the focus of the debates is not on the lack of (labour) rights of sex workers and migrants, but rather on the implementation of further restrictive measures in dealing with sex work and also migration!

If we really want to fight against exploitation, we need more (labour) rights for sex workers and migrants!

Sex work itself is often defined as the cause of human trafficking. The consequence of this perspective is that it is not restrictive migration regulations, the actual breeding ground for the exploitation of migrants, but sex work and sex workers themselves that are being fought.

Sex workers are not per se victims, migrants are not per se trafficked! In our opinion, the fight should not be against a certain group of people, but against the prevailing conditions and violent structures.

The current debates, which predominantly associate sex work with coercion and violence, distort real conditions and ignore the structural framework conditions that lead to the fact that it is still predominantly women or migrants who enter sex work. The framework conditions that favour exploitation are also ignored.

Moreover, it is precisely this omission, because it is so powerful, that makes it impossible to address existing conditions that are more complex and heterogeneous than the simplified polarisation that characterise current discussions.