{"id":37333,"date":"2025-03-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swissmig.wordpress.com\/?p=37333"},"modified":"2025-03-17T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:00:00","slug":"the-migration-politics-of-sexual-liberalism-sex-work-regulation-as-subnational-migration-policymaking-in-switzerland-from-1992-to-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swissmig.unine.ch\/?p=37333","title":{"rendered":"The migration politics of sexual liberalism. Sex work regulation as subnational migration policymaking in Switzerland from 1992 to 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author(s) : Lisa Stalder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Source : https:\/\/libra.unine.ch\/handle\/123456789\/34354<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Abstract: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n

Depuis 1992, le commerce du sexe en Suisse a \u00e9t\u00e9 r\u00e9glement\u00e9 principalement au niveau infranational (cantonal et municipal) par des approches qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 qualifi\u00e9es de lib\u00e9rales et pragmatiques. Dans le m\u00eame temps, et dans le contexte d\u2019un r\u00e9gime de migration et de mobilit\u00e9 en pleine transformation et d\u2019une politisation croissante de la migration, la migration a \u00e9t\u00e9 une pr\u00e9occupation majeure dans les d\u00e9bats publics et politiques sur le travail du sexe. Cette th\u00e8se \u00e9tudie l\u2019intersection entre les politiques sexuelles et les politiques migratoires, en interrogeant particuli\u00e8rement comment la probl\u00e9matisation du travail du sexe en tant que question migratoire est all\u00e9e de pair avec une approche lib\u00e9rale du travail du sexe. Sur la base d\u2019un total de 663 documents analys\u00e9s, provenant de 11 cantons suisses et de 7 municipalit\u00e9s o\u00f9 un d\u00e9bat substantiel sur le travail du sexe a eu lieu entre 1992 et 2022, je soutiens que, dans une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 post-migrante qui \u00e9volue autour de luttes constantes sur la migration, les d\u00e9bats sur le travail du sexe sont devenus des ar\u00e8nes infranationales de la politique migratoire. Cela signifie que les d\u00e9bats sur le commerce du sexe et les processus de r\u00e9glementation dans les cantons et les municipalit\u00e9s suisses ont \u00e9t\u00e9 influenc\u00e9s par la politique migratoire au niveau national et transnational et par l\u2019\u00e9volution de cette politique au cours des trois derni\u00e8res d\u00e9cennies. Inversement, les processus infranationaux de r\u00e9glementation du travail du sexe ont \u00e9galement constitu\u00e9 des espaces o\u00f9 les politiques migratoires ont \u00e9t\u00e9 activement n\u00e9goci\u00e9es et o\u00f9 les cadres (re)produits ont aliment\u00e9 le d\u00e9bat plus large sur les migrations. Sur la base d\u2019une analyse th\u00e9matique des documents collect\u00e9s, je d\u00e9montre dans cette th\u00e8se que la migration et la mobilit\u00e9 ont \u00e9t\u00e9 des th\u00e8mes saillants dans les d\u00e9bats infranationaux sur le commerce du sexe. \u00c0 travers une reconstruction approfondie des processus de r\u00e9glementation du travail du sexe dans 3 cantons qui ont opt\u00e9 pour diverses approches et une analyse critique des cadres men\u00e9e sur des documents s\u00e9lectionn\u00e9s, je retrace l\u2019\u00e9volution des d\u00e9finitions des probl\u00e8mes et des solutions au fil du temps, ainsi que le r\u00f4le des actrices et acteurs, des partis politiques et des coalitions. Je soutiens que le lib\u00e9ralisme en mati\u00e8re de travail du sexe ne doit pas seulement \u00eatre compris comme se r\u00e9f\u00e9rant \u00e0 une r\u00e9glementation bas\u00e9e sur des principes lib\u00e9raux, mais que le lib\u00e9ralisme a fonctionn\u00e9 comme un outil pour gouverner l\u2019industrie du sexe et la mobilit\u00e9 de ses travailleuses. En outre, la r\u00e9it\u00e9ration discursive du lib\u00e9ralisme en relation avec le travail du sexe a servi \u00e0 exclure celles qui, sur la base de cat\u00e9gories telles que le genre, l\u2019origine nationale ou ethnique et le statut migratoire, \u00e9taient consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme incapables de respecter les id\u00e9aux lib\u00e9raux. Enfin, en utilisant la m\u00e9thode dite du \u00ab cas \u00e9tendu \u00bb, je montre que les d\u00e9bats sur le travail du sexe ne peuvent \u00eatre pleinement compris sans tenir compte du contexte politique plus large dans lequel ils s\u2019inscrivent. La r\u00e9glementation du commerce du sexe dans les cantons et municipalit\u00e9s suisses entre 1992 et 2022 s\u2019inscrit dans le cadre des politiques nationales et transnationales de la migration : Les d\u00e9bats et l\u2019\u00e9laboration de politiques infranationales sur le travail du sexe ont aliment\u00e9 une \u00ab politique d\u2019exception \u00bb dans les ann\u00e9es 1990 et au d\u00e9but des ann\u00e9es 2000, lorsque les migrations post-sovi\u00e9tiques \u00e9taient au c\u0153ur des inqui\u00e9tudes de l\u2019Europe occidentale quant \u00e0 la reconfiguration du r\u00e9gime europ\u00e9en de migration et de mobilit\u00e9 et des relations de genre ; ces d\u00e9bats et processus de r\u00e9gulation s\u2019inscrivaient dans une \u00ab politique de la diff\u00e9rence \u00bb au tournant de la d\u00e9cennie 2010, lorsque la libert\u00e9 de circulation intra-europ\u00e9enne \u00e9tait de plus en plus remise en question et que les gouvernements nationaux cherchaient des moyens de g\u00e9rer les formes \u00ab ind\u00e9sirables \u00bb de mobilit\u00e9 ; et ils ont contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 une \u00ab politique de l\u2019exclusion \u00bb \u00e0 un moment o\u00f9 des crises enchev\u00eatr\u00e9es associ\u00e9es \u00e0 la migration dans la conscience publique depuis le milieu des ann\u00e9es 2010 exacerbaient les polarisations politiques sur la migration. En examinant la r\u00e9glementation du travail du sexe sous l\u2019angle de la gouvernance des migrations, cette th\u00e8se met en avant le fonctionnement du genre et de la sexualit\u00e9 dans les politiques migratoires et montre comment les processus de diff\u00e9renciation produisant des \u00ab autres \u00bb fa\u00e7onnent les politiques sexuelles et informent les politiques lib\u00e9rales sur la sexualit\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1992, sex work in Switzerland has been regulated mainly at the subnational (cantonal and municipal) level, through approaches that have been described as liberal and pragmatic. At the same time, and in the context of a transforming migration and mobility regime and an increasing politicisation of migration, the migrancy of sex workers has been a salient concern in public and policy debates on sex work. This thesis investigates the intersection of sexual politics with the politics of migration, asking in particular how the problematization of sex work as a migration issue has gone in hand with a liberal approach to sex work. Based on the analysis of a total of 663 policy documents on sex work from eleven Swiss cantons and seven municipalities where a substantial debate on sex work took place between 1992 and 2022, I argue that in a postmigrant society that evolves around constant struggles over migration, debates on sex work have become subnational arenas for migration policymaking. This means that sex work debates and regulation processes in Swiss cantons and municipalities have been influenced by the politics of migration at the national and transnational level and by the evolution of these politics over the past three decades. Conversely, subnational sex work regulation processes also constituted spaces where the politics of migration have been actively negotiated and from where the frames (re)produced have fed into the broader migration debate. Based on a thematic analysis of the collected policy documents, I show in this thesis that migration and mobility were salient themes in subnational debates on sex work. Through an in-depth reconstruction of the sex work regulation processes in three cantons that opted for diverse approaches, and a critical frame analysis of selected documents, I trace the evolution of problem definitions and solutions over time and the role of actors, political parties, and coalitions. I argue that liberalism on sex work should not only be understood as referring to regulation based on liberal principles, but that liberalism functioned as a tool to govern the sex industry and the mobility of its workers. Moreover, the discursive reiteration of liberalism in relation to sex work served to exclude those who, based on categories of gender, national or ethnic origin, and migrant status, were considered incapable of living up to liberal ideals. Finally, by using extended case method, I show that debates on sex work cannot be fully understood in isolation from the wider political context in which they take place. The regulation of sex work in Swiss cantons and municipalities between 1992 and 2022 was part of the national and transnational politics of migration: Subnational debates and policymaking on sex work fed into a \u2018politics of exception\u2019 in the 1990s and early 2000s, when post-Soviet migrations were at the heart of Western European anxieties about the reconfiguration of the European migration and mobility regime and gender relations; these debates and regulation processes were part of a \u2018politics of difference\u2019 around the turn of the decade 2010, when intra-European freedom of movement was increasingly called into question and national governments sought out ways to steer \u2018undesired\u2019 forms of mobility; and they contributed to a \u2018politics of exclusion\u2019 at a moment of entangled crises that were linked to migration in the public consciousness since the mid-2010s, exacerbating political polarizations in relation to migration. By looking at the regulation of sex work through a migration governance lens, this thesis foregrounds the workings of gender and sexuality in the politics of migration, and contributes to an understanding of how processes of differentiation producing migrant \u2018others\u2019 shape sexual politics and inform sexually liberal policies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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