Paved with Good Intentions? by Sallie Yea

Author:Sallie Yea
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811332395
Publisher: Springer Singapore

Migrant Sexual Labourers in Singapore

In Singapore, female migrant labourers are found in two sectors: the sex and nightlife entertainment sector and foreign domestic service. In the sex and nightlife sector, women come from a range of countries, including the Philippines , Peoples Republic of China (PRC), Vietnam, Thailand , Indonesia , Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. Women from the Philippines , Bangladesh, and PRC are allowed by the government to legally work in Singapore as performing artists and can enter on a visa for this work, which has validity for six months and can be renewed for a further six months. All other women and girls enter on social visit passes (SVPs, or tourist visas) which have a validity of between two and four weeks and may be extendable for a further 2–4 weeks.

Very little in the way of research has been conducted with migrant sex workers and entertainers in Singapore (for exceptions, see Yea 2014; Lainez 2017). The little research that has appeared points to a highly variegated and complex picture. There are significant numbers of trafficked women and girls amongst migrant sexual labourers, including women and girls who are completely duped about the nature of their work, women and girls who are aware that their work may involve mild forms of sexual labour undertaken by choice rather than through force, and those who are clear about the nature of their work as sexual labourers but are nonetheless duped about the conditions attached to that work, including numbers of clients and remuneration for clients serviced (Yea 2014). Lainez’s (2017) detailed ethnography of Vietnamese migrant sex workers in Singapore further reveals that voluntary migrant sex workers are often extremely organised in their migration, despite its informal nature, and this organisation is necessary to help safeguard women against exploitative working environments (though not always successfully).

There are four principal types of venues where migrant (and local) women are deployed in Singapore’s sex and nightlife entertainment industry. These are bars and nightclubs, on the street in and outside known commercial sex districts, in commercial sex district-based brothels (regulated and unregulated), and in forest-based brothels. Filipinas comprise the mainstay of women deployed in bars and nightclubs (including KTV bars), though there are increasing numbers of South Asian (especially Bangladeshi ) and Vietnamese women also being deployed in these clubs. Indonesian women are deployed primarily in street-based prostitution along with women from a range of other nationalities (including Vietnamese women, mainland Chinese women, and South Asian women). Thai women are deployed primarily in forest brothels but also in regulated brothels in established prostitution districts. The majority of migrant women at all four sites enter Singapore on social visit passes, although in bars and nightclubs Performing Artist’s Visas (PAVs) are used to deploy women for hostessing and sex work.

Foreign women in Singapore’s sex and entertainment sector experience various exploitative practices during their sojourns in Singapore. These are in addition to the mistreatment they often face whilst still in their home countries, which primarily takes the

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