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Moving gender @ No Border Camp Gatwick 2007
Friday 21st September 10am -1pm
An open discussion on the relationship between
national borders, gender
and
sexuality.
Or, how any challenge to one requires a challenge to
the other.
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Everyday of our lives we are confronted with rigid
ideas of gender and
sexuality
and thus our 'appropriate' roles in society. Anyone
who does not
conform is seen
as 'other' or 'strange' or even 'dangerous'. In a
society that always
attempts
to mark someone as 'other' (by race/sexuality/gender
or any other
means) we
refuse to accept this present condition of nations and
borders, the
containment
of people behind false divides that serves only to
profit those in
power.
Many Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans and queer people
find themselves
crossing
varying kinds of borders constantly. From accepted to
rejected, from
rural area
to urban, from country to country, from suburbs to gay
ghettos. Rigid
gender
roles and enforced norms mean many queers spend their
lives migrating
in one
way or another, not necessarily from places of
victimization, but
sometimes
just to find an environment where they can find
themselves.
In similar and at the same time different ways, women
are constantly
moving. In
and out of paid work, inside and outside of male
dominated spaces, and
across
borders. Migration, so the media, politicians,
mainstream feminists and
leftists, and commentators tell us is a dangerous
activity. Yet, women
move
and do so for the same reasons as everyone else.
They/we move to make
money, to
survive and to realise their projects, dreams, and
relationships.
They/we move
to work. For women, 'home' is often a difficult place
be free. When
coming from
poorer countries, women, especially working class
women aren't
presented with a
wide variety of work-choices. The same can be said for
many queer and
trans
migrants. In fact, it is fair to say that they/we have
their/our work
choices
reduced overwhelming to a handful of professions: care
work, nanny
work,
cleaning, domestic work, and sex work.
When single men decide to move, this it is understood
as normal:
ambitious,
brave, self-sacrificing. So, when 'others' move why
are they/we seen as
pushed,
obligated, coerced, or forced? Often migrant women,
trans and queer sex
workers
are understood as trafficking victims or as modern-day
slaves.
Trafficking, in
contrast to 'voluntary' migration, is defined as an
involuntary and
non-consensual form of migration geared towards
exploitation of (women)
migrants' labour, whether for sex, or other kinds of
informal labour.
Yet, the
existence of forced labour is not unique to the sex
industry, nor are
women the
only people caught in exploitative and damaging
situations. How do we
overcome
and change the trafficking rhetoric? How can we
acknowledge and promote
autonomous migration and freedom of movement for all?
The moral panic of trafficking has resulted in
numerous state and
non-state
interventions: firstly, via the establishment of
'protective schemes'
for
'victims of trafficking' and secondly, through the
tightening of border
and
visa regimes to combat organized criminal networks and
punish via
deportation
those same victims so recently rescued. In contrast to
the rhetoric
about
'rescuing exploited women', 'anti-trafficking'
interventions (raids,
rehabilitation, court orders) lead to increasing
criminalisation,
illegalisation, and heightening the exploitation of
migrants of all
genders.
Anti-trafficking campaigns, facilitated by various
feminist, community
and left
organisations, policy bodies and groups, often
dangerously collapse
violence
against women, women's migration, and sex work into
one category. This
denies
women's agency to choose to migrate and/or do sex
work, and shifts the
attention from the home where most violence against
women occurs.
This is unsurprising when you consider the ongoing
prejudice and
hysteria over
sex, sexuality, sex roles and practices as a method of
control. The
best way to
keep oppressed people busy and quiet, is to leave as
few possibilities
to
challenge the dominant paradigm as possible. Women
must stay where they
are and
behave as they should, and so should queer and trans
people. That is
why we will
discuss ways to change the terms of analysis of
so-called 'trafficking'
from
violence against women and organized crime to
migration and labour,
whether is
it paid or unpaid labour. Our aim is to envisage new
analytical
possibilities
and build a radical political agenda and alliance
starting from migrant
women,
trans and queer people lives/struggles.
Some ideas for discussion
What alternative political practices and discourses
can we create that
would
actually support the struggles of migrant women, trans
and queer
people,
whether they are employed in the sex industry, in
domestic work, or in
any
other industry?
What can we do to create alliances with other
struggles (and their
existing
networks) across Europe?
What kind of alliances do we need to create in order
to shift the terms
of this
debate, in particular in feminist politics and in the
left, and in
order to
fight the stigmatisation we experience in the wider
society?
We plan for the event to be multi-language. If you
need or you can
provide
translation into English please get in touch
IMPORTANT - here is the information on the venue:
Moving Gender Workshop
Friday 21st September
10am - 12.30pm
Ruskin House
23 Coomee Road
Croydon
CR01BD
for more info call: 07981070417
closest train stations: East Croydon and South Croydon
please circulate this information when promoting the
workshop
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