The trajectories of migration and prostitution are embedded in representations of body, gender, sex and sexuality. This article seeks to understand the articulation between migration and sex work through the lens of gender. To this end, this article relies on a typological approach that aims to clear some ground in the ongoing debate on the issues of prostitution, sex trafficking and migration of sex workers. It explores the theoretical cross-contribution as well as the conceptual limitations of radical, liberal, post-colonial, critical and postmodern feminist perspectives on the issues of prostitution, sex workers’ mobility and sex trafficking. It gives special focus to the contributions of the postmodern feminist reading, especially by highlighting how it has challenged conventional feminist theories, hitherto grounded in dualistic structures. In fact, the postmodern feminist approach makes a stand against the simplistic dichotomies such as First/Third World, passivity/agency, vulnerability/empowerment, innocence/conscience, sexual trafficking/voluntary prostitution or ‘trafficked victim’/‘autonomous sex worker.’ As such, postmodern feminism disrupts all fixed demarcations and homogeneous forms of categorisation on which the dominant feminist theories were based, allowing thus for the emergence of new practices of subjectivity as well as new forms of flexible identities.

Com base na teoria crítica da segurança sobre a construção do outro como sujeito diferente e perigoso, esse artigo desenvolve um estudo crítico dos discursos dominantes sobre os fenômenos de tráfico sexual e migração pelo trabalho sexual na Europa. Busca-se realizar uma análise do processo de securitização através do qual a migrante prostituta é identificada como uma “vítima criminosa”, que coloca em risco a ordem pública, o modelo da família tradicional, a sexualidade feminina e a soberania dos Estados europeus.ABSTRACT This article develops a critical study of the dominant discourse on sex trafficking and transnational sex work in Europe, by relying on the critical security theory about the construction of the “other” as a different and dangerous subject. It seeks to analyze the process of securitization of migrant prostitutes, through which they are identified as "criminal victims" who challenge the public order, the traditional family structure and female sexuality, and ultimately the sovereignty of European states. The degree of dangerousness of irregular migrants involved in prostitution is defined through a construction of their risk profile, which serves as a justification to implement policies of body and movement control, by restricting immigration entrance, criminalizing or deporting them to their countries of origin.Palavras-chave: Migração, Securitização, Tráfico sexualKeywords: Migration, Securitization, Sex traffickingRecebido em 25 de Janeiro de 2018 | Received on January 25, 2018 Aceito em 02 de Abril de 2018 | Accepted on April 2, 2018DOI