Laura María Agustín
Encyclopedia
Laura María Agustín is a sociologist who studies undocumented migration, informal labor markets, trafficking and the sex industry. She is critical of the conflation of the terms "human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...

" with "prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

", arguing that the Rescue industry often ascribes victim status to people (most often women) who have made conscious and rational decisions to migrate knowing they will be selling sex and who do not consider themselves to be victims. She states that such views on prostitution originate in what she calls "fundamentalist feminism". She advocates for a cultural study of commercial sex, a theoretical framework she created in the journal Sexualities in 2005.

Agustín carried out research on migration and sex work on the Mexico/US Border, in the Caribbean, in South America and in several European countries. She did participatory research for several years with a range of social actors aiming to help migrants in Spain and received a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Cultural Studies and Sociology from the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...

, United Kingdom, in 2004.

Her first book, Trabajar en la industria del sexo, y otros tópicos migratorios, was published in Spain in 2004 (Gakoa, ISBN 848730379X). In 2007 she published her second book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry (Zed Books, ISBN 1842778609). In this book she argued that contemporary anti-trafficking 'crusades' have the effect of restricting international freedom of movement, and she compared today's anti-trafficking feminists with the "bourgeois women" of the 19th century who felt the need to save poor prostitutes, seeing women as weak, easily victimized and in need of guidance. Agustín does not deny human trafficking or forced prostitution takes place, but rather argues that the campaigners against prostitution and undocumented migration overestimate figures.

Agustín publishes in Spanish, English and Swedish. In 2010 she was Visiting Professor in Gender and Migration in the Swiss university system, based at the University of Neuchatel and participated in the Battle of Ideas in London.

Agustín has in turn been criticized by anti-sex industry feminists such as Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys is a lesbian feminist scholar and political activist, known for her analysis of the history and politics of sexuality in Britain. She is a professor in Political Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia...

, who claim that Agustín trivializes the harm done to women and children in trafficking.

External links

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