Moving gender @ No Border Camp – Gatwick 2007

(date and time TBA)

An open discussion on the relationship between national borders, gender and sexuality. Or, how any challenge to one requires a challenge to the other.

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/our lives migrating in one way or another, not necessarily from places of victimization, but sometimes just to find an environment where they/we can find them/ourselves.

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