@article{fdi:010088482,
  title = {{D}ebt, trafficking and safe migration : the brokered mobility of {V}ietnamese sex workers to {S}ingapore},
  author = {{L}ainez, {N}icolas},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{I}n popular thinking, debt evokes notions of vulnerability and bondage, while irregular migration for sex work conjures up the hazards of human trafficking and modern slavery. {T}hese perceptions inform 'safe migration' policies aimed at ordering and regulating migration and combating informality to increase migrants' safety and well-being; the assumption being that illegality puts migrants at risk of abuse. {T}his article challenges these assumptions with an ethnographic study of brokerage practices in the quasi-family networks that facilitate the irregular and circular migration of {V}ietnamese sex workers to {S}ingapore. {I}n these networks, brokers sell a migration package on credit to their clients, the migrant sex workers, who repay it through sexual labour. {T}his package includes all the services necessary for the women to migrate temporarily and work safely in {S}ingapore. {M}ost crucially, it serves as an entre'e into the broker's business and social network, as a way of forming an enduring relationship. {W}ithout denying the power of debt to create inequality, obligation and exploitation, this article shows that debt can also be a profitable, non-coercive and reciprocal device for brokers and sex workers alike, a vector of 'safety' which limits some of the risks they encounter in a repressive and uncertain host environment. {T}his finding stems from a novel framework in economic anthropology, the 'socio-economy of debt' ({G}ue'rin, 2018), which complicates moral views of debt through an empirical examination of the materiality, power dynamics and social and moral meanings of debt arrangements and relationships.},
  keywords = {{VIET} {NAM} ; {HO} {CHI} {MINH} {VILLE} ; {SINGAPOUR} ; {HONG} {KONG} ; {JAPON} ; {PHILIPPINES}},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{G}eoforum},
  volume = {137},
  numero = {},
  pages = {164--173},
  ISSN = {0016-7185},
  year = {2022},
  DOI = {10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.01.021},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010088482},
}