Race, space, place: notes on the racialisation and spatialisation of commercial sex work in Dubai, UAE

Abstract

This paper focuses on the perceived racialisation and resultant spatialisation of commercial sex in Dubai. In recent years, the sex industry in Dubai has grown to include women from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, East Asia and Africa. With the increase in sex workers of different nationalities has come a form of localised racism that is embedded in structures and desires seen within specific locations. The physical spatialisation of sex work hinges on perceived race and produces distinct income generating potential for women engaged in the sex industry in Dubai. The social and physical topography of Dubai is important in marginalising or privileging these various groups of sex workers, which correlates race, space and place with rights and assistance. I begin with a description of the multidirectional flows of causality between race, space, place and demand. I then discuss how these various groups are inversely spatialised within the discourse on assistance, protection and rights. The findings presented here are based on ethnographic research conducted with transnational migrants in the UAE in 2004, 2008 and 2009.

Cet article se concentre sur la racialisation perçue du commerce du sexe à Doubaï, et sur la spatialisation qui en résulte. Ces dernières années, l'industrie du sexe a pris de l'ampleur et s'est élargie à des femmes provenant du Moyen-Orient, d'Europe de l'Est, d'Asie de l'Est et d'Afrique. Parallèlement à cette augmentation du nombre de professionnelles du sexe de différentes nationalités, une forme de racisme localisé est apparue, qui est ancrée dans les structures et les désirs observés sur des lieux spécifiques. La spatialisation physique du commerce du sexe est dépendante de la perception des races auxquelles ces femmes appartiennent, et produit un revenu distinct générant un potentiel pour les femmes engagées dans le commerce du sexe à Doubaï. La topographie sociale et physique de Doubaï prend une importance particulière en marginalisant ou en privilégiant ces divers groupes de professionnelles du sexe, ce qui a pour effet de corréler la race, l'espace et le lieu, aux droits et à l'assistance. Je commence par décrire les flux multidirectionnels de causalité entre race, espace, lieu et demande. Ensuite, j'explique comment ces groupes divers sont inversement spatialisés dans le discours sur l'assistance, la protection et les droits. Les résultats présentés ici sont basés sur une recherche ethnographique menée avec des migrants transnationaux dans les Émirats Arabes Unis en 2004, 2008 et 2009.

En este artículo presto atención a la racialización percibida y la espacialización resultante del sexo comercial en Dubai. En los últimos años, la industria del sexo en Dubai ha crecido incluyendo a mujeres de Oriente Medio, Europa del este, este de Asia y África. Con el aumento de las trabajadoras sexuales de diferentes nacionalidades ha surgido una forma de racismo localizado que está arraigado en estructuras y deseos que se observan en lugares específicos. La espacialización física del trabajo sexual depende de la raza percibida y produce un potencial considerable de generar ingresos para mujeres que participan en la industria del sexo en Dubai. La topografía social y física de Dubai es importante para marginar o dar privilegios a estos diferentes grupos de trabajadoras sexuales, lo que tiene el efecto de relacionar la raza, el espacio y el lugar con los derechos y la asistencia. Empiezo con una descripción de los flujos multidireccionales de causalidad entre raza, espacio, lugar y demanda. Luego analizo cómo estos diferentes grupos son inversamente espacializados en el discurso sobre asistencia, protección y derechos. Los resultados presentados aquí se basan en un estudio etnográfico con emigrantes transnacionales llevado a cabo en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos en 2004, 2008 y 2009.

Keywords:

• sex work
• Dubai
• trafficking
• migration

Acknowledgements

The research for this study would not have been possible without the generous support of the Pomona College Faculty Research Grant, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I am grateful to my field research assistants throughout the process including Christine Sargent, Abby DiCarlo and Sarah Burgess as well as my research assistant in Washington, DC, Alexandra Fries. I also wish to thank Paasha Mahdavi, Lara Deeb and Christine Sargent for their feedback on various drafts of the paper. This paper was initially a presentation given at a panel on ‘Re-imagining the Gulf City’ organised by Neha Vora and Andrew Gardner at the American Anthropological Association meetings in 2009. I am grateful to the organisers of the panel and the audience for their comments in the piece in its initial form. Finally, I wish to thank my incredible interviewees who made Dubai feel like home throughout my stay.

Notes

^1. Dubai is not the only place where the kefala, or sponsorship, system governs the rules and experiences of guest workers. In fact, many of the Gulf countries have this same system in place. In these countries, the kefala system is problematic in that residence in the country is predicated on the sponsor-employer. Scholars such as Andrew Gardner (2010) have argued successfully that this system imposes a type of structural violence on migrant workers in the Gulf. For domestic workers, the kefala system presents particular challenges in that while they are held to the rules of the sponsorship system, they cannot benefit from the protections of said system as their work is relegated to the ‘private realm’ and there exists a specific clause in UAE labour laws that note domestic workers are not protected by labour laws that protect construction or other migrant workers (Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington, DC). Domestic workers in many parts of the world face the dilemma of what scholar Rhacel Parrenas (2001) has termed ‘partial citizenship’. However, domestic workers and many other members of the informal economy in the Gulf experience added challenges of not being able to seek out recourse for challenges incurred during their time as domestic workers due to a lack of formal structures in place to protect their rights (for an excellent discussion of domestic work in the Gulf, please see Gamburd [2000], Longva [1999] or Silvey [2004]).

^2. Note the population of Dubai consists of only 8% Emiratis or locals (Dubai Statistical Center 2009). The remainder of the population is made up of non-citizens. Of these non-citizens, it is estimated that 70% are unskilled labourers from parts of Asia and Africa, but most commonly South Asia (for more statistics on demographics in the Gulf, see Andrzej Kapiszewski [2001]). Male unskilled workers are typically labelled ‘migrants’, female unskilled workers are referred to as ‘help’ or ‘care takers’, while skilled workers, mostly of Western origin, earn the more melodious term ‘expat’ according to my interlocutors.

^3. I use quotes to indicate the contested nature of a term that has no universal definition, rather various actors define the term ‘trafficked’ in ways that are most convenient for their policies, academic discourses or activist procedures. There has been an increasing amount of debate about the definition of ‘trafficking’, which is most often used to refer to the movement or transport of illegal contraband, specifically arms and drugs. ‘Trafficking in people’ is defined as the transportation of people across long distances (which may or may not include crossing an international border) through some form of deceit, coercion or force. It is for these reasons and more that it is important not to conflate the often sliding definitions of terms such as ‘trafficking’, ‘migration’ or ‘labour’. For an in-depth discussion of the strategic deployment of the term ‘trafficking’ in the Gulf, please see Agustin (2007).

^4. Though several interlocutors described the presence of male sex workers in Dubai, I was unable to find any men during my time in the field. Therefore, while I acknowledge the presence of male sex workers in Dubai and the Gulf more broadly speaking, in this article I am focusing on women who work in the sex industry.

^5. I place ‘trafficking victims’ in particular in quotations to indicate the arbitrary nature of ‘victimhood’. I do not deny that trafficked persons are often subjected to unscrupulous and criminal figures and that migrants, trafficked or not, often are victim of macro and micro instances of violence and exploitation. I am wary, however, of the term victim, because of the unequal power dynamic that is implied. By positioning trafficked women as victims, the attention and power is then shifted to ‘rescuers’, who set the terms for who gets to ‘count’ as a victim and what they are understood to be a victim of. For an in-depth explication of the politics of the rescue industry, please see Soderlund (2005).

^6. For an in-depth explication of this, please see Mohanty (1991, 1997). In Mohanty's 1997 essay, Mohanty notes that sex work in many parts of the world is racialised hierarchically. In addition, the case of Dubai expands on Mohanty's argument because all labour in Dubai is organised hierarchically (according to nation of migrant origin), as are pay scales. For example, the lowest wage earners in the Dubai typically come from Ethiopia and Nigeria and are racialised as ‘black’ according to perceived skin color, followed by unskilled workers perceived as ‘Brown’ migrating from South Asia. The pay scales rise the lighter the skin color of the employee, thus demonstrating Mohanty's point beyond just the case of sex work.

^7. Though it may seem that Iranians and Moroccans should not necessarily be considered white, all of my interlocutors placed them in this category. During my fieldwork, I was told repeatedly that Iranians and Moroccans are favoured over Gulf Arabs because of their reputation for light skin.

^8. Examples of this include films such as Taken or Body of Lies, journalistic books such as Jim Krane's (2009) City of gold: Dubai and the dream of capitalism and two BBC documentaries which are currently being made about commercial sex work in bars in Dubai.

^9. For examples of this in other contexts, see Soderlund (2005), Vance and Miller (2004), Chapkis (1997), and Bernstein and Schaffner (2005).

^10. For an in-depth discussion of this, please see Vance and Miller (2004), Bernstein and Schaffner (2005), or Cheng (2010).

^11. Though colloquially referred to as the United Nations Palermo Protocol, the full title of this act is the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons’ and is housed in the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

^12. According to Articles 155 and 166 of UAE Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 (known as the ‘Labor Law’); Human Rights Watch (2007).

^13. The obsessive focus on violence within the sex industry obscures the widespread existence of labour rights abuses against migrants in all industries and collapses the motivations of female migrants, both those seeking to enter the sex industry as well as those seeking to enter other labour sectors, into a homogenous tale of victimisation.