ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twentieth century, prostitution policy pursued in Austria dated back almost a hundred years. It was mainly based on the idea that prostitution was determined by a certain milieu and could be fought with reformatory measures. While citizens of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) can take up residence and have full access to the labor market, non-EU and non-EEA citizens need specific work visas in order to work as sex workers in Austria. In general, provinces in the western part of Austria tend to be more conservative, making it much harder to comply with the requirements for legal sex work. In 2012, 6,000 sex workers were recorded by police statistics, with more than half of them working in Vienna and 861 in Upper Austria. The increase in Upper Austria is in line with this national development, whereas the number of registered sex workers in Vienna doubled during this period.
