'Foreign Prostitute' in Contemporary Italy
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The ‘foreign prostitute’ in contemporary Italy: gender, sexuality and migration in policy and practice A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Sociology in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy By Isabel Crowhurst London School of Economics and Political Science University of London London 2007 UMI Number: U237437 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U237437 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 1VS0 6,t I certify that this thesis, presented by me in 2007 for examination for the PhD degree of the University of London, is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. Isabel Crowhurst 2 Abstract This thesis examines discourses, policies and practices underpinning the response to, and governance of, prostitution-related migrations of women in contemporary Italy. It analyzes how Italian socio-political factors, such as national identity construction and political opportunism, and normative values and cultural practices (including historical stigmatization of prostitutes, racialization of the ‘ethnic Other’ and inferiorization of women) contribute to different understandings of, and responses to, the new presence of migrant women operating in the sex industry in Italy. The study adopts a feminist qualitative research methodology and is primarily based on in-depth interviews and participant observation with a number of diverse third sector organizations that operate in the provision of support services to migrant women in the Italian sex industry, as well as on the investigation of relevant documentary sources. Taking as one of its focal points the analysis of the legal measure that since 1998 has regulated the provision of assistance to women trafficked for sexual purposes, the thesis explores the strategies enacted by the bodies that are in charge of implementing such regulation and the motivations informing them. Furthermore, the complexity and often controversial meanings attached to the phenomenon o f‘foreign prostitution’ - as it is often described in both public and legal discourse - is explored in relation to discourses invoked in debates initiated in 2002 over the change of the current legislation regulating prostitution in the country. The analysis of these issues shows how dominant historical prejudices against prostitutes and migrants have coalesced in the construction of the image of ‘foreign prostitutes’ who are subjected to a variety of forms of discipline on the basis of gendered, racialized and sexualized identities ascribed to them. The production and reproduction of socially constructed representations of migrant women who operate in the sex industry in Italy and the political and ideological forces underlying such processes are issues that have received little attention in the literature. In this sense, it is hoped that this research will fill a gap in the existing sociological literature, and allow for a more comprehensive understanding of these issues. 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................ 4 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES...............................................................................8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................11 1. Presentation, objectives and research questions.............................................11 2. Some clarifications about definitions adopted in the study..........................14 3. Thesis overview.................................................................................................... 17 4. Concluding remarks............................................................................................ 19 PARTI THEORIES, PERSPECTIVES ANDMETHODOLOGY .................20 CHAPTER 1: THEORIES AND PERSPECTIVES...............................................21 1. Introduction ................................................... 21 2. Some trends of global migrations’...................................................................22 • The ‘feminization of migration’...................................................................................................24 3. Towards a gender approach in migration research ....................................... 25 4. Prostitution and trafficking: a critical review of contested matters...........33 • The white slave trade and growing concern for female prostitution..................................... 34 • Prostitution as sexual exploitation: the radical feminist approach........................................ 36 • Challenging the prostitution as exploitation and victim-centric approach...........................40 • Some comments on the scholarship produced on prostitution-related migrations 46 5. Theoretical underpinnings and analytical perspective of this study ...........48 6. Concluding remarks............................................................................................51 4 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY, METHODS AND SOURCES..................... 54 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................54 2. Methodology .......................................................................................................54 3. The first stages of the research process: getting started ...............................56 • Getting familiar with the field .................................................................................................... 56 • The collection of documentary sources.....................................................................................57 4.The fieldwork .................. 61 • Profile of the sample....................................................................................................................61 • Getting in .................................................................................................................................. 65 • Interviews ...................................................................................................................................67 • Participant observation.................................................................................................................70 • The analysis of the data ................................................................................................................73 5. Further comments on the research process.....................................................74 • What about migrant prostitutes? Confronting complications in the field............................74 • Sexism and racism in the field and some self-reflective notes..............................................76 • Some considerations on research ethics....................................................................................80 6. Concluding remarks............................................................................................ 80 PART II SETTING THE SCENE........................................................................ 82 CHAPTER 3: MIGRATION AND PROSTITUTION IN ITALY: SETTING THE CONTEXT FOR THE RESPONSE TO ‘FOREIGN PROSTITUTION’......................................................................................................... 84 1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 84 2. Italy and migration: an overview......................................................................84 • The shift from an emigration to an immigration country...................................................... 84 • The response to immigration.......................................................................................................86 • Italian immigration policies ........................................................................................................89 3. Prostitution in Italy: an overview......................................................................93 4. The arrival o f ‘foreign prostitutes’....................................................................97 5. Towards the formulation of Article 18............................................................101 6. Migrant women in the Italian sex industry: data and their reliability.... 103 7. Concluding remarks .......................................................................................... 105 5 PART III E m p ir ic a l A n a l y s is o f t h e D a t a ..............................................107 CHAPTER 4: ‘FOREIGN PROSTITUTION’ AND (FAILING) LAW(S).......108 1. Introduction .....................................................................................................108 2. The legal response