Migration and Racial Justice
The situation
Migrant and racialised sex workers are often most severely impacted by harmful laws, policies and practices. They face significant and heightened barriers to support and are often poorly served by state and NGO services. In this strategic period, we will adopt a priority focus on improving outcomes for migrant and racialised sex workers and will integrate this focus throughout all of our strategic objectives.
Our objectives
- We will identify donors to support the development of this area of work.
- We will support sex worker organisations in developing their knowledge and advocacy on anti-trafficking and migration policies and building links to migrant sex workers at the national level.
- We will increase representation and centre migrant sex workers, particularly racialised sex workers, in our work, staff, and leadership structures.
- We will engage with and offer allyship to movements for migrant’s rights and racial justice in Europe.
Our current activities
To achieve its objectives, ESWA is coordinating a range of activities to build the capacity of migrant and racialised sex workers in our region and advocate for their rights.
The activities currently include sub-granting to BIPOC sex worker led organisations as well as the BIPOC Sex worker Academy.
ESWA's programs on anti-racism, including the BIPOC Sex worker academy, were supported by the ESWA's Anti-Racism Advisory Group and Anti-Racism Expert Groups
ESWA's Anti-Racism Advisory Group
Sarah Chander is co-founder of the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, a POC-led organisation working to advance rights and justice for all people in Europe. Equinox works in solidarity with a coalition of racial and social justice leaders and organisations to influence EU law and policy. Sarah also works on digital rights and racialised surveillance with European Digital Rights (EDRi), and has a background in racial justice, feminist and queer organising.
Dr. Raven Bowen (PhD) (She/her) is the CEO of National Ugly Mugs (NUM) the largest sex worker support charity in the UK. Raven's involvement in community development with sex workers spans almost three decades and two countries, Canada and the UK. She founded and contributed to several sex worker support projects, advocacy organisations and research projects and initiatives. She has an MA in Criminology and a PhD in Sociology. Her research interests are in methodologies, research ethics, the sociology of work, transitioning or 'exiting', and what she terms 'duality'- concurrent involvement in sex work and square (mainstream) jobs. To read more about duality, see her recent book 'Work, Money and Duality: Trading Sex as a Side Hustle'. She is unapologetic about the need to include sex workers as experts, as leaders, and as our greatest assets in combating injustice, exploitation and violence. Raven stands against unethical, exclusionary politics and hypocrisy in general! She works towards the full cultural citizenship of sex workers, inclusive of safety, rights, recognition, choice and other entitlements.
Anti-Racism Expert Group
The Anti-Racism Expert Group is constituted of 10 BIPOC sex workers