Gender, Migration, and the Public Sphere, 1850-2005 by Schrover Marlou;Yeo Eileen;

Author:Schrover, Marlou;Yeo, Eileen; [MARLOU SCHROVER & EILEEN JANES YEO]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2011-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

PROSTITUTION

The last issue had to do with prostitution. Prostitution was present in discussions on migration in all periods. A case that was subject of political and public debate focussed on a Philippine woman called Nena. She came to the Netherlands in 1982 thinking that she would work as a receptionist in a hotel, but was forced to work as a prostitute. In 1985 Nena and another woman from the Philippines pressed charges against their Dutch pimp, but not much happened after that. In 1988 political attention for her case increased because a television crew had tracked down the pimp in the Philippines. He was arrested and brought to the Netherlands and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.79

In the Nena campaign powerful tropes like sex slaves and slavery were frequently used. The number of women in a position similar to Nena was grossly overestimated. The national newspapers referred to Nena as a victim, but also as a whore.80 One paper presented her as a victim but also as an activist in the fight against trafficking.81 It was also suggested that she and others in her position had already worked as prostitutes in the Philippines.82 The newspapers described other women in a similar position as ‘sweet’ and ‘graceful’, using oriental stereotypes. Emphasis was put on the fact that, after their rescue from prostitution, they would never be able to return to the strict Catholic Philippines.83 Philippine society was described as backward and thoroughly corrupt. In a response to the commotion in the Netherlands the Philippine government decided that women were no longer allowed to leave the country.84 The decision was not put into effect.

Dutch newspapers in 1985 not only reported on the Nena case but also on another prostitution case.85 Over the preceding few years, 500 women (referred to as girls in the newspapers) had been brought from the Philippines to the Netherlands. They had been recruited via advertisements in Manila newspapers. The ‘girls’ were asked to audition as dancers. Each time only a few were selected. Groups of five dancers were formed, the groups and the girls were given so-called exotic names, and the girls went through a period of training as dancers. Upon their arrival in the Netherlands their passports were taken away from them and they were put to work as prostitutes. The case came to the attention of the press when one of the women fled from a brothel and sought refuge with one of her former clients, a Philippine sailor. The Dutch government said it could do little because the ‘girls’ travelled to the Netherlands on tourist visas. When these expired they moved to other European countries. Attention in the press died down relatively soon, but re-emerged three years later, in 1988, when it was discovered that women did not only come on tourist visas, but were also granted work permits by the Dutch government because there was no Dutch supply for the job of ‘exotic dancer’.86 The ministries of Social Affairs and Justice saw no grounds to refuse these permits.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.