ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how and why Chinese migrant women initially get involved in prostitution, and highlights the immediate circumstances under which these women cross the threshold into prostitution. It focuses on the circumstances present in the women's lives at the time when they initially began to provide sex services. The paths to prostitution are diverse. The chapter shows that data has enabled the establishment of a typology of six different paths by which Chinese women end up in prostitution. Specifically, these categories include: a boyfriend changing their life, specific family or personal events, persuasion by relatives, influence of friends/co-workers, self-initiation, or force/deceit/coercion exerted by others. The chapter also shows that factors related to women's involvement in prostitution vary, and the relevance of each factor to women's involvement in the sex trade is different. In terms of proximal factors, some women get involved in this trade because of specific events.
