Crossing borders: The intersectional marginalization of Bulgarian Muslim trans*immigrant sex workers in Berlin
Bulgaria became an EU member country in 2007, the free movement of Bulgarian workers within the EU did not begin until 2014. According to the National Report on HIV and Sex Work in Germany, the EU enlargement that began in May 2004 resulted in an increase in the number of sex workers originating in Eastern European countries.
Crossing Borders: The intersectional marginalization of Bulgarian trans*immigrant sex workers in Berlin is a research project offering a situated intersectional analysis of the bordering experiences of Muslim trans*immigrant sex workers from Bulgaria. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin, this project focuses on three interactional contexts: EU and Bulgarian law and policies, sociopsychological and medical services, and German labour law concerning sex work. Our project demonstrates both that bordering experiences derive not solely from national border enforcement and citizenship regulation but also from intersectional sociocultural barriers imposed by non-state actors and that the internal bordering practices of the German state exacerbate the exclusion and marginalization of non-heteronormative migrants.
By offering an intersectional analysis of the entanglement of sex work with immigration and bordering experiences, we argue that bordering experiences derive not solely from the enforcement of national and legal borders and citizenship regulations, but also by means of sociocultural marginalization imposed by non-state actors in ways that gravely affect trans*immigrant sex workers everyday lives.
The project contributes to the framing of ‘border’ as multiple, insidious, and expansive and engages with the factors of time (when did it happen?) and person (who was doing it and who was it done to?) to disclose ‘border’ as an experience which affects sex workers’ physical existence and livelihood strategies in Berlin.
The project is funded by the Department of Diversity and Social Conflict.
Researchers:
Tunay Altay, PhD Candidate, Department of Diversity and Social Conflict, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Dr. Gökce Yurdakul, Professor of Sociology, Head of Department of Social Sciences, Chair Diversity and Social Conflict, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Anna C. Korteweg, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga