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Affects and international migration: the case of exotic dancers in Switzerland

Affects and international migration: the case of exotic dancers in Switzerland. Romaric Thiévent Department of geography University of Neuchâtel Switzerland. The 4th International Conference on Population Geographies – 12 July 2007. Introduction.

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Affects and international migration: the case of exotic dancers in Switzerland

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  1. Affects and international migration: the case of exotic dancers in Switzerland Romaric Thiévent Department of geography University of Neuchâtel Switzerland The 4th International Conference on Population Geographies – 12 July 2007

  2. Introduction • PhD project in geography called « Ciculatory migration: the case of cabaret dancers » • Aims • To explain the economic, sociological and/or demographic evolutions that underlie the importation of such labour force in Switzerland • To analyze the evolutions of the volume and structure of this migratory flow • To get an understanding of the geographical trajectories of theses migrants at a national and international scale

  3. Aim of the presentation • Discuss the relations between affects, the international division of labour and international migration with particular reference to the case of exotic dancers in Switzerland • Special emphasis on « emotional consumption » in Swiss cabarets

  4. Plan of the presentation • The context of exotic dance in Switzerland • Research question • Theorical framework • Hypothesis • Methodology • Some results • Conclusion

  5. The context of exotic dance in Switzerland • The L permit • Stay of maximum 8 months • Exception in Swiss immigration policy • Number of dancer • About 1500 per month • Activites of dancer • Strip • Discuss with clients and insite them to drink alcohol • Provide sexual services • Origin • 98% form non UE countries, mainly Ukraine, Russia, Rumania, Morocco, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Thailand.

  6. Research question • Why do exotic dancers come from these particular countries?

  7. Theorical framework 1 • The international division labor (IDL) • Delocalization at the core of the process of IDL • Services are nowadays more and more delocalized • Certain kind of services cannot be delocalized because they have to be performed in a particular place and context • Among these: activities which are “traditionally”, although not exclusively, feminine like nursing, child care, domestics work, sex work • Activities of a particular kind: emotional labor. • Emotional labor requires services providers to offer emotion as part of the service itself (Hochschild, 1984)

  8. Theorical framework 2 • Cabaret dancer perform emotional labor • Particular kind of consumption in Swiss cabarets → emotional consumption

  9. Theorical framework 3 • The need in western countries for such “emotional” services causes important migratory movement of women at a global scale • Trend named • “International division of reproductive labor” (Parreñas, 2000), “Cross border transfer of reproductive labor” (Truong, 1996), “Global redivision of women traditional work” (Ehrenreich & Hochschild, 2000) • Litterature on IDRL give: • Convincing explanations about the process that underly the « importation » of women reproductive workers in First World countries • Few – or only general – explanations about why women from particular countries perform particular reproductive work

  10. Hypothesis • The pattern of emotional consumption that occur in Swiss cabarets explain (partly) the origin of dancers • To test the hypothesis • Focus on transactions between customers and dancers • Focus on criteria of recruitment of agencies

  11. Methodology • Semi structured interviews with • Cabaret dancers • Cabaret owners • Agents • Clients • Observation in cabarets

  12. What do the customers ask for in their interaction whith dancers? • Great diversitiy and complexity of motivations, experiences, fantasies, etc. • General pattern: • Search for emotions (to feel powerful, to be understood, etc.) that emerges from the relation (watch, talk, touch, etc.) with women labelled as exotic

  13. Exotism • Exotism • Not inherent to certain people, objects or places • Product of a gaze and discourse • Behind the attraction for exotic women lie a subtle mechanism of racism, which as “a system of meaning and power often foregrounds the body of the Other – as object of ridicule or admiration, as object for domination or commodification” (Jordan and weedon, 1995, 253)

  14. Tensions between what clients expect and get • Pattern of search of exotism appears even more clearly when you analyse this tensions • Not only do the clients search relationships (talk, touch and have sex) with women labelled as exotic, but in these relationships they also want to find the confirmation of their own representations.

  15. Example of tension • “You are not a real Moroccan! The real Moroccans are more expansive and aggressive with clients. If you want to earn money and continue to work for me, you have to behave as a real Moroccan. The clients don’t want false Moroccans! Some clients complain about you!” (Leila, Dancer, Moroccan)

  16. Example of tension • “Most of the clients tell me: “Oh you are Brazilian! It seems that in Brazil there are only soccer players, whores and transvestites. You don’t play soccer, and are not a transvestite, so you like sex a lot, don’t you? So why don’t you want to have sex with me?” They don’t understand that I don’t want to have sex with everyone. I’m not what they believe I am.” (Carol, Dancer, Brazilian)

  17. These two example show that: • Cabaret dancers are paid to be archetypal exotic object • In the process of emotional consumption, the consumer project fantasies onto the commodity which have little to do with the person providing the service being consumed (Egan, 2005) • When a dancer does not fit into these exotic stereotypes, she may encounter problems • In order to continue earning money, dancers have to fit into exotic representation of clients • What the clients find in cabaret is a construction and not an importation of the « natural » characteristics of a given culture

  18. Recruitment criteria 1 • The general pattern of search for exotism is necessary, but not sufficient to explain why these women are coming from these particular countries • Almost all dancers come to work in Switzerland through recruitment agencies. • So the role of these middle level unit that facilitate and organize migration have to be taken into account • criteria of recruitment of agencies

  19. Recruitment criteria 2 • Origin of dancers is the expression of client’s desire • Recruitment is made to follow/fulfill client’s desire for women labelled as exotic

  20. Conclusion 1 • In Swiss cabaret emotional consumption is strongly dependant of a process of exotisation of the “Other” performing emotional labor • “The exoticization of the Thirld World “Other” is equally important as economics factors in positioning women in sex work” (Kempadoo, 1998, p.10)

  21. Conclusion 2 • Recruitment agencies try to fulfill, respond clients desire for women labelled as exotic • To understand the involvement of women in the sex industry, it is important to focus on the behaviour and the preference of consumers and non uniquely on the women who provide these services

  22. Conclusion 3 • Importance of non economic factors – emotions buyed and sold - in the process of international division of reproductive labor

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