Prostitution Economy in Spain is Fueled by Latin American Migration
A new report by the Spanish Ministry of Equality shows that in Spain, there are more than 114,000 women who have prostituted themselves and that more than 24 percent of prostituted women are working under exploitative conditions. This is the first time an analysis like this has taken place, and we must face up to the profound economic and social consequences of prostitution.
Spain’s Prostitution Economy
Spain’s Ministry of Equality counted more than 114,000 women in prostitution. More than half, 51 percent, of those women were from Latin America. Other Europeans make up 16 percent. In 29 percent of all cases, origins could not be determined. The report, the first exhaustive research by the Spanish government into the scope of prostitution, including domestic sex work, women brought into Spain for sex work. Cases of trafficking involve interviews with more than 620 women. The sex worker community has welcomed the effort. ‘The important thing is that the government finally recognizes this exists,’ says Cinder, the NGO director. According to the report, Spain is the center of prostitution in the western Mediterranean.
The nationalities of the women themselves – all listed in proportion to their numbers in the survey – were as follows: 28.3 percent Colombian, 13.5 percent Spanish, with the higher percentage of Spanish nationals being foreign-born citizens; 4.5 percent Brazilian; 4.4 percent Venezuelan; 4.1 percent Peruvian; 3.9 percent Ecuadorian; 3.7 percent Panamanian; and 3.5 percent Nicaraguan. Spanish causes are fueling a burgeoning human trafficking operation. More than a third of cases were given as ‘unknown,’ which says a lot about how hard it is to pin down an underground economy like this.
Though the average age group is 25 through 36, 28 percent of all women are 18 to 24, indicating a high youth clientele. In this arena, ethnicity, invisibility, and virtuality are core principles of business economics.
A Closer Look at Risks and Exploitation
Titled ‘Macro-study on Trafficking, Sexual Exploitation and Prostitution of Women: Quantitative [sic] Approach’, it estimates the size of the population at risk, as well as the dangers to which these women are exposed through found that: [W total of 24.000 [women] – are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and even at risk of being drawn into human trafficking networks …Based on an analysis of more than 200,000 online ads which mentioned the following risk indicators, self-perception, the way the ad is designed, and categorization or recommendations concerning a woman (these are reflected in the accompanying figures and/or tables), a crude risk scale was defined: [T]here is a higher risk when in the ad we find indication of the age being ‘new’ as well as the following self-perception words … new, young, innocent, child, student, submissive, shy, young, inner … For services offered, there is a higher risk if in the ad, it is indicated that: she is available … watch, with another/third party, amateur, for the first time … for ethnicity, a higher risk corresponds if: Korean … Asian. Researchers expressed concern about sexualized videos – in online ads, videos are commonly used to sell sex – as well as the way some escorts refer to clients with titles like ‘sir.’
Even more disturbingly, 24.3 percent of the ads had three or more exploitation risk factors, and 8.5 percent had four or more. ‘Even single risk factors may point to exploitative scenarios,’ she writes, ‘which means the occurrence of coercion is probably much higher than suggested.’
A map of the leading establishments and the nature of advertisements in Spain’s cities reveals some terrible availability and consumption pull details. The extended network of business activity, from Internet ads to escort agencies, is now considered a sector of economic regulation and social intervention.
Prostitution Market Forces and Economic Drivers
It’s economic when we learn that 96.1 percent of the 650,000 entries from prostitution websites based in Spain were women, and 3.9 percent were trans women. This sector employs 0.56 percent of the female population. Of course, I could try to explain how these observations are, as a matter of course, personal. The visible world is not just black and white – it’s also personal. The Spanish economist and feminist Rita Segato has described this sector as ‘extreme and full of pain,’ but it is also as usual. ‘Something normal, in which women who willfully sell sex establish sexual relationships that allow them to confront the deep problems generated by capitalism,’ she writes. ‘They are, above all, victims of a feminization of the workplace, in short of capitalism itself.’ Segato’s suggestion is that looking at sex work through an economic lens can help us make sense of it. It’s economic when we learn that the prostitution sector employs 0.56 percent of the female population. That’s a surprisingly large number. It’s economic when we remember how much economists are determining a lot of the attacks on Edinburgh’s publicly funded sex work services. It’s economic, too, when we remember that an anonymous donor has closed their purse. It’s economic when we think about gentrification and the removal of working-class people from inner-city areas and how that has been exacerbated by these new licensing schemes.
It bears the hallmarks of unique consumer demand, such as the type of service, region of Spain, and clientele, according to categories and prices. Poverty in the areas that produce the majority of women (for example, Latin America) is a strong driver of this market of financial opportunity for women, with its high propensity for women migrants. Like in any industry, supply chain supply chains, logistics, and marketing have a strikingly ‘normalized’ organizational character.
It’s estimated that there’s probably a hidden population of women in prostitution who are not represented by the number 114,000, a secret population whose number of shadow cases lies beyond what is statistically debated. When a statistical method called the truncated Poisson model is applied, the number of listed and unlisted participants rises between 152,735 and 184,234 – a way of knowing just how much of this commercial sex trade is unseen by the public, outside the grasp of lawmakers.
Policy Implications and Future Outlook
Suppose this report is the starting point for changing how prostitution is regulated and treated in Spain. In that case, the findings suggest real reasons for optimism. ‘This study is a starting point for developing policies that discourage criminal exploitation, reduce people’s exploitation risks, and can regulate the commercial sex trade,’ said Carmen Martínez Perza, the government delegate against gender violence. Policy changes are desperately needed.
While the study sheds light on the enormous economic scale to which prostitution has grown, it also reveals gaps in policy where virtual prostitution and women’s geographic migration remain unexamined. Previous Policy Café posts may be downloaded from our archive. Correction, 26 December 2012: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated – and we deeply regret the error – that the figure of 583,031 prostitutes on offer at any given time in Spain was too high to believe.
With a renewed call for state intervention and business regulation, there is enormous potential for the legal and economic landscape to change in Spain. As the country confronts the large and secretive black economy of prostitution, conversations about women’s rights, financial precarity, and consumer responsibility will indeed define the future. The findings of this study indicate that the time is now for policy changes that reflect both exploitation and market realities.
Also read: Latin America on Edge: Trump vs. Harris and Economic Volatility
The report is an attempt to present a multifaceted portrait of prostitution in Spain – both human and economic – and to use that understanding to size up what kind of policy responses might succeed in addressing both the exploitation and the market realities.
