Sex in the City Spatial politic, sex work and Thai migrant workers in the Netherlands

Abstract

The Netherlands was the first country to officially legalize sex work. The Red light district (De Wallen in Dutch)
became a main destination for tourist attraction. In 2010, the Amsterdam municipality launched a new policy regulatory in order eliminate criminal network and human trafficking. This paper zooms in on two specific spatial regulatory projects– Project 1012 and The Wall–concerning the politics and spaces of sex work in the Netherlands during the 2010s and looks at how these come into conflict with spatial understandings and mobility of Thai migrants in these spaces. Drawing from fieldwork and documentary analysis, the paper argues that the two government-led projects use urban spatial strategies such as gentrification to govern sex work by changing and shrinking sexual space and making the area visible and open. This contradicts the nature of sex work itself and changes the distinctive character and choreography of the space. Moreover, through the perspective of Thai migrants in massage parlors
who were affected by the policy, it argues that the rigid classification and licensing of spaces of sex work conflicts with Thai women's lived experiences of the work, where the distinction between 'masseuse' and 'sex worker' was always fluid, as was moving between work places.