The Invisible Women: Migrant and Immigrant Sex Workers and Law Reform in Canada

• Main Author: Jamie Chai Yun Liew
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brock University 2020-03-01
• Series: Studies in Social Justice
• Subjects: migrant; immigration; race; sex worker; prostitution; immigrant; law; bedford
• Online Access: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/2144

This article examines how migrant and immigrant sex workers have been rendered invisible before the courts and parliament in the reform of laws regarding sex work in Canada. A discourse analysis of the expansive legal record in the Bedford case and the transcripts of Parliamentary debates and testimony before Standing Committees confirm the lack of nuanced discussion on how criminal law reform could impact migrant and immigrant sex workers. As such, while the case of Bedford and the resulting change in the law made by Parliament have been celebrated as a win for some sex workers as an acknowledgment, recognition and judicial validation of experiences by legal institutions of sex workers, a sub-group of women – migrant and immigrant sex workers – remain in the shadows. This article examines how law excludes migrant and immigrant sex workers; it is a starting point for research on how migrant and immigrant sex workers may participate in future legal reform.