ABSTRACT

The goal of this ethnography was to explore the trajectories, anxieties, vulnerabilities and aspirations of Filipinas who migrate to Korea’s gijich’on as entertainers. The book examined these constrained mobilities both in the context of women’s working lives in the clubs and in Korea and the Philippines after they left their initial workplaces. I was particularly concerned to detail women’s trajectories in Korea after running away from the clubs, since these sites are often overlooked in accounts of migrant entertainers, including Filipinas. Most discussions of migrant entertainers and migrant sex workers tend to presume that after club work women will either go back home of their own accord or under the directorship of a government authority or that they will be subject to rehabilitation measures in the context of anti-trafficking interventions. Yet in Korea post-club manoeuvrings and re-workings constitute a pivotal and formative period in these women’s lives and one where – as with working in the club – their agency is always visible, even where its transformative potential is often opaque and elusive.