ABSTRACT
This chapter is an analysis of the ways in which Asian and migrant sex workers resist anti-trafficking efforts through drawing on first-hand experiences of Asian massage parlor workers in Canada and the work of the organization Butterfly in Toronto. Butterfly is the first self-mobilized Asian and migrant sex workers grassroots organization in Canada that also represents the workers in public debates and policy fora. The authors recognize and discuss the ways that histories of racism against Chinese and other Asian migrants in the U.S. and Canada continue to inform many policies and practices today, arguing that Asian women have been framed and represented as passive victims then and now—a framing that positions them, in the eyes of the state and anti-trafficking organizations as helpless and in need of rescue. Based on various studies the authors show that the main effects of anti-trafficking campaigns for the women today are heightened policing and surveillance, criminalization, greater restrictions on their mobility, detentions and deportations. Butterfly’s work to counter the racialized stereotypes and racist patriarchal harms of anti-trafficking is presented.
