[pt] A figura da migrante trabalhadora do sexo pode ser interpretada de múltiplas formas de acordo com interesses, visões morais e objetivos políticos dos atores em jogo. Este trabalho analisa as perspectivas de segurança, gênero e resistência promovidas, respectivamente, por atores governamentais, associações e pelas próprias migrantes brasileiras na França. Investiga como as interações sociopolíticas das brasileiras trabalhadoras do sexo cisgêneros e transgêneros configuram, em conjunto, uma economia moral da mobilidade de trabalhadores sexuais. Mais especificamente, esta tese tem como intuito elucidar de que forma o rótulo de vítima vulnerável, por um lado, e os de criminosa, cafetina, clandestina e transgressora, por outro, são produzidos e mobilizados pelos diferentes atores envolvidos na regulação da migração laboral sexual. A análise realizada neste trabalho baseia-se em pesquisa de inspiração etnográfica, descrevendo o campo da prostituição brasileira nas cidades francesas de Paris, Lyon e Toulouse. A partir dessa imersão, a tese demonstra como as articulações existentes entre a categoria de vitima - de tráfico, de exploração laboral sexual, do patriarcado, do capitalismo desigual - e a categoria de criminosa - por cafetinar as amigas, por ser clandestina, por alimentar o mercado negro, por exercer uma atividade imoral - são mobilizadas nesse contexto. Revela uma realidade altamente nuançada e ambivalente, uma vez que as brasileiras prostitutas são muitas vezes, ao mesmo tempo vítimas e autônomas, manipuladas e oportunistas, cafetinas e exploradas. / [en] The migrant sex worker character can be interpreted in multiple ways according to the interests, moral views and political goals of relevant stakeholders within this context. This work analyzes how the perspectives of security, gender and resistance, respectively promoted by government actors, associative agents and the subjects themselves reverberate in the empirical practice, that is, through the interactions of Brazilian cisgender and transgender sex workers with the other actors surrounding them and with whom they together configure the moral economy of the mobility of sex workers. More specifically, this thesis aims to investigate how the label of vulnerable and naive victim on the one hand, and the labels of criminal, pimp, illegal and transgressive on the other are produced and mobilized by the different actors involved in the regulation of sexual labor migration. The analysis carried out in this work is based on ethnographic-inspired research, describing the field of Brazilian prostitution in the French cities of Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. From this immersion, the thesis demonstrates how the articulations between the category of victim - of trafficking, of sexual labor exploitation, of patriarchy, of unequal capitalism - and the category of criminal - for pimping friends, for being clandestine, for feeding the black market, for exercising an immoral activity - are mobilized in this context. It reveals a highly nuanced and ambivalent reality, since Brazilian prostitutes are often simultaneously victims and autonomous, manipulated and opportunists, pimps and exploited.

La majorité des infections par le VIH sont acquises hétérosexuellement surtout chez les femmes en Afrique subsaharienne. Le tractus génital féminin (TGF) est la principale porte d’entrée pour le VIH et joue un rôle important dans la défense de l’organisme. De concert avec les cellules épithéliales, les cellules dendritiques (DC) aident à maintenir une balance immunitaire entre tolérance et inflammation. Dans un groupe de travailleuses du sexe (CSW) à Cotonou, au Bénin, des femmes (CSW ≥ 8 ans) ont été identifiées comme hautement exposées séronégatives (HESN). La fréquence de populations cellulaires myéloïdes de type Monocytes-Derived Dendritic Cells (MoDC) présentant un potentiel antiviral et « tolérogénique/régulateur » est augmentée au niveau du TGF des HESNs et les monocytes pourraient être impliqués dans leur génération. Les résultats de RNA-seq sur les monocytes totaux permettent de constater une augmentation de gènes associés à des fonctions effectrices, de protection/contrôle de l’infection et de régulation chez les HESNs comparé aux contrôles (2,5-5 années CSWs HIV- « early HESN », CSWs HIV+ et des femmes de la population générale Non CSWs HIV-). Les résultats de cytométrie en flux (FACS) démontrent une proportion élevée de non-classiques comparé aux autres sous-populations de monocytes sanguins, exprimant davantage de molécules effectrices et régulatrices, suggérant un lien avec les MoDCs tolérogéniques observées. Cinq individus ont séroconverti et ont présenté des modifications bien avant la séroconversion, soit une diminution de β-chimiokines et des IgG anti-gp41 dans le compartiment sanguin et mucosal du TGF. Un bris du profil « tolérogénique/régulateur » pourrait donc favoriser la séroconversion. / Most HIV infection are acquired through heterosexual intercourse, mostly in women in subsaharian Africa. The female genital tract (FGT) is the principal portal of entry for HIV and plays a critical role in host defense. Together, epithelial cells and dendritic cells (DC) help maintain immunological balance between inflammation and tolerance. In a group of commercial sex worker (CSW) from Cotonou, in Benin, women (CSW 8 ≥ years) have been identified as HIV-1 highly exposed seronegative (HESN). The frequency of myeloid cell populations alike to Monocytes-Derived Dendritic Cells (MoDC) presenting an antiviral potential and a tolerogenic/regulating profile were increased in FGT of HESNs and their monocytes could be implied in their generation. The RNA-seq results on total blood monocytes show an increase expression of genes associated with effector, protection/control of HIV infection and regulation functions in HESNs compared with control groups (2,5-5 years CSWs HIV- « early HESN », CSWs HIV+ and women from general population Non CSWs HIV-). Our flow cytometry (FACS) results show an elevated frequency of non-classical compared with other sub-populations in blood monocytes, expressing more effector and regulator molecules, suggesting a link with observed tolerogenic MoDCs. Moreover, five individuals have seroconverted and presented modifications before seroconversion such as lower levels of β-chemokines and anti-gp41 IgG in blood and mucosal compartments in the FGT. A break of this “tolerogenic/regulating” profile could favor seroconversion.

Over the last few decades, Asian migrants who work in the sex industry have become the frequent target of police, government, and social service investigations. Indeed, a range of state and nongovernmental organizations have promoted punitive investigations and carceral policies, claiming to act to protect migrants from being trafficked. However, sex workers, sex workers’ rights activists, and critical antitrafficking scholars argue that rather than providing protection, this increased focus on Asian migrants actively produces myriad harms and has negatively impacted these workers’ lives by endangering their health and safety, increasing stigma and vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, and violating their human rights. To date, there is limited research on how the investigations claiming to protect migrant sex workers often turn into criminal, immigration, or bylaw investigations against them. This doctoral study aims to contribute to this small but growing body of knowledge. Informed by critical social work, institutional ethnography, and participatory action research, this project maps how the illegality of Asian migrant sex workers, particularly those who work in massage parlours, is constructed and produced. First-person narratives of Asian women have provided the threads (including the texts, actions, and institutions) for further investigation of how their experiences are shaped and how investigations against them are organized. This study shows how racism, whorephobia, and xenophobia have been embedded in both the laws and policies that coordinate sex and massage work and the way investigations into regulated and unregulated massage parlours have been organized in Toronto, Ontario. This finding helps us understand the ruling relations between law enforcement and the workers, and how the laws, policies, and practices that are intended to protect women who are purportedly “trafficked” instead criminalize and harm Asian migrant workers. This research also shows the autonomy and resiliency of Asian migrant massage and sex workers, revealing how they organize against and resist this injustice. The knowledge developed from this project has been used by sex worker communities in their ongoing efforts to challenge the dominant ideologies and discourses about sex workers and human trafficking. Further, it has contributed to their capacity to investigate institutional processes and, in turn, foster and create progressive institutional and policy change. This dissertation also offers important contributions to critical scholarship, including critical human trafficking studies, abolitionism, and activist scholarship. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / This research examines how the laws and policies, particularly municipal bylaws, that claim to protect Asian and migrant massage and sex workers are actually harming them and putting them in danger. The experiences of Asian migrant sex workers, particularly those who worked in massage parlours, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, provided the threads (including the texts, actions, and institutions) for further investigation of how their experiences are shaped and how investigations against them are organized. This study examines how the workers’ illegality is constructed and produced to coordinate the ruling relationship between the workers and law enforcement. With a focus on antitrafficking organizations (particularly those related to carceral feminism and social work), this study maps out how whorephobic, xenophobic, and racist antitrafficking discourses have become embedded in institutional discourses and into the laws and policies that regulate investigations into sex work and massage parlours. However, Asian migrant workers are not simply victims of these laws. This study also reveals the autonomy and resiliency of Asian women and how they are organizing to challenge the dominant discourse about massage work, sex workers, and human trafficking to create progressive institutional and policy change. This dissertation makes important contributions to critical human trafficking studies, abolitionism, and activist scholarship.