Surviving Disastrous Times: How Asian Migrant Sex Workers Navigated the Pandemic, Anti-Asian Sentiment, and Policing

• In Event: Contemporary Crises and Theoretical Applications

Abstract

This study documents the experience of violence and victimization of Asian migrant sex workers, with special attention to the period following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and Atlanta shooting. Using in-depth interviews and field work with Asian sex workers and advocates in New York City and Los Angeles, this study examines why varying attempts to “justice” by the state and patriarchal forces fail and how Asian sex workers take matters into their own hands. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy of fear further stigmatized and intensified the perception of Asian sex workers as an imagined threat to public health and purity, subjecting them to shutdown of businesses, vandalism, robbery, and violence. In the face of heightened anti-Asian sentiment and policing, Asian sex workers - who are often perceived as “quiet,” “submissive,” yet hypersexualized - developed interactive and agential ways to survive and escape from unsafe situations (e.g., sexual assault, robbers, stings) with their own means without seeking the help from law enforcement or other social agencies, traditional patriarchal "saviors" who often endanger them further based on their labor and immigration status. Workers further showed resilience and grit by extending networks of care and support amongst themselves and to immigrant communities.

Author

• Brittany Suh, The Graduate Center, CUNY