This book investigates the intersections of sexual politics and migration politics, asking how Switzerland’s overall liberal approach to sex work since the early 1990s fits with the common tendency to problematize sex work as a migration issue. It argues that debates and regulatory processes on sex work at the Swiss cantonal, municipal, and federal level can be understood as arenas where struggles over migration are carried out. These arenas are shaped by recent developments in the Swiss and European migration and mobility regimes, but they also function as sites from where migration politics are actively co-produced. Liberalism plays a central role in this dynamic. While previous research has linked the criminalization of sex work to the tightening of migration control, this book shows that liberalism, with its emphasis on ordering, counting, and classifying, also serves to govern the sex industry and the mobility of its workers. Moreover, liberal positions on sex work have been used to justify the exclusion of those who, at the intersection of gender, sexuality, national origin, and migrant status, are seen as incapable of conforming to dominant norms and ideals.
