ABSTRACT
This research aims to contribute an innovative application of intersectionality theory to a criminological study of immigrant, migrant and racialised women in sex work. In this chapter, I outline key principles of intersectionality and discuss its roots in Black feminist thought, before discussing how an intersectional framework can illuminate the links between processes of social categorisation and immigrant, migrant and racialised women’s agency, mobility and security in sex work. This chapter also explores how the experiences of mobile, globalised workers in a stigmatised industry (i.e. the sex work sector) can contribute to broader intersectional theoretical discussion on the production of power, social difference and mobility. Intersectionality theory has been referred to as feminist theory’s most important theoretical contribution (McCall, 2005), with significant implications for migration research (Silvey, 2004; Burgess-Proctor, 2006; Bilge & Denis, 2010), social movements, international human rights and public policy (Chun, Lipsitz & Shin, 2013; Hancock, 2007). However, it is still arguably under-utilised in criminology. Daly argues that intersectionality in criminology still remains more “an aspiration for the future than a research practice today” (2010, p. 237; also see Daly, 1997; Daly & Maher, 1998), although Potter (2013) argues that an intersectional lens is evident in feminist criminological research, even if not explicitly labelled as intersectionality.
