Australia an attractive destination for Chinese sex workers: Survey
Updated
The Scarlet Alliance, Australia's Sex Workers Association, has carried out a survey to learn more Chinese women working in domestic sex industry.
The results were unexpected; most of the women who come to Australia from China to work as prostitutes are over the age of 30, and many come from professional backgrounds back home. The survey challenges the Asian sex-worker stereotype of young, powerless women and girls.
Presenter: Corinne Podger
Speaker: Elena Jeffries, president of the Scarlet Alliance
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JEFFRIES: The survey was originally conducted in China by a sex worker organisation, and when they conducted the survey, they decided that they wanted to investigate more about the diaspora of Chinese sex workers migrating to other countries. So the Scarlet Alliance came on as a partner in Australia, to investigate the Australian component of this transnational survey.
PODGER: Most of these women were in their 30s or older, and around two out of three didn't work as sex-workers in China. Indeed, they came from a broad range of professional backgrounds. Was prostitution a deliberate adult choice for them?
JEFFRIES? Absolutely. What we're seeing with the demographic of these women is, they're coming into Australia in their late 20s and early 30s. They've had a great deal of professional experience in a range of professions before they travelled here, and they're making a conscious choice when they get to Australia that the sex industry is what they would like to engage in.
PODGER: Were there many alternatives open to them?
JEFFRIES: Well given the qualifications of a lot of the women involved, we know definitely some of them had a high level of education, but I guess that is a question, about Australia's recognition of overseas educational qualifications.
PODGER: Some of these women were working as beauticians, police officers and bank clerks back in China?
JEFFRIES: Yes, and public servants were there as well. Without further research, we wouldn't know for sure, but we should be aware that there is a large migration for work from China to Australia, so the people we're interviewing are just one component of that, that happen to work in the sex industry.
PODGER: As far as working conditions go, how did the experiences of Chinese sex-workers compare to the conditions for Australian women?
JEFFRIES: Well, when it came to things like access to health services, to good sexually-transmitted disease clinics and also condom use, Chinese sex workers were on a par - exactly the same statistics came back - as Australian women. Ninety-seven percent condom use, and overwhelmingly 100 percent access to STI clinics and health clinics in Australia, so we think that's a really important thing to know, that Chinese sex workers are enjoying the same occupational health and safety workers as Australians in Australia.
PODGER: Did you find that surprising?
JEFFRIES: We didn't know what to expect, but I think it's a nice surprise, actually. It is commonly understood that Asian sex workers are stereotyped as being involved, or caught up, in sex slavery and trafficking, in Australia. So we found that the characteristics of the workplace for Chinese migrant sex-workers, who participated in our survey, did not match anything like a trafficking situation. So we were really pleased with the outcome.
PODGER: The vast majority of Chinese sex workers in your survey said the laws here are fair, and three-quarters would come back again. It gives an impression that being an Australian sex-worker is a comfortable and easy life. Is that a fair assessment?
JEFFRIES: Well I think it is a fair assessment that the workers enjoyed their time working here, and I think it's important to note that if 75 percent are going to come back here and work again, then this ongoing research is quite important. We would like to turn this research into a longitudinal study and conduct the survey again in three years' time, so that we can keep ongoing monitoring of Chinese migrant sex worker conditions in Australia, because they are an important component of the Australian sex industry and they deserve good conditions. This research also helps inform policy relating to them.
PODGER: And these findings will also feed back into a broader international understanding?
JEFFRIES: That's right. Towards the end of the year we'll have the entire transnational survey released, so we'll get a picture of how Australia compares to other countries. We already know from the preliminary results that Australia is one of the best working condition countries that Chinese migrant sex workers work in, and that includes South East Asian countries and around some countries in the Pacific. The survey was also conducted in Canada.
