ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the debates surrounding trafficking and prostitution within the more general context of the growing market for migrant sex workers within Europe. It argues that only by understanding the forces that push migrant women to work in the sex industry globally, will governments be able to formulate policies which reduce rather than increase the vulnerability and insecurity of these women. There are two major difficulties in any analysis of the issue of trafficking in Europe. Firstly the lack of any generally agreed definition of what trafficking consists of, and secondly, the paucity of research and reliable statistics on the phenomenon. The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation has become a major cause of concern for many European governments and for policy-makers in the European Union. The high profile of recent debates over trafficking may have served to obscure other realities relating to migrant prostitution and sex work within Europe.
