This Minor Field Study “Where are the sex workers?” by Hannah Blaad, was conducted during her two (2) months stay in Skopje, working for her bachelor thesis, and describes the current situation on sex work and sex workers in North Macedonia.
STAR as the only collective for and by sex workers in North Macedonia, was chosen as the host of the study, providing Hannah close contact with the community members, who have participated in the field research sharing their stories and everyday experiences in thеir relationship to state institutions and civil society.
This Minor Field Study that describes in what ways sex workers and sex workers’ rights advocates perceive the political exclusion of sex work in Skopje, North Macedonia and how such exclusion affects their everyday experiences. The study was conducted through a Minor Field Study which included semi-structural interviews and direct observations. The results present sex workers’ and sex workers’ rights advocates (SWAs) experiences of everyday exclusion and demonstrate certain ambiguous relationships to ministries and state institutions as well as civil society actors in North Macedonia. The study shows the consequences of the simplistic and exclusionary discourses on sex work and sex trafficking that remains blind to differences between women’s experiences in the sex industry. Such discourses are perceived to dehumanise sex workers which makes the work of sex workers’ rights advocates seem irrelevant. Such blindness also seems to further push sex workers and sex workers’ rights advocates in North Macedonia to the margins of political space where political advocacy for sex workers becomes difficult, and under prioritised. Where successes of inclusion have been made, the funding for sex workers’ rights is perceived to be unsustainable and not accountable to the sex worker community in North Macedonia.
The study illustrates the dimensions of political exclusion of sex work and how this is perceived and experienced by SWAs and sex workers in North Macedonia. It also describes how this is affecting their everyday experiences (specifically with state institutions). The following themes were presented in the study: the participants’ perception of the illegality of sex work and how this affects their work and relationship to state institutions; the way in which sex work is partly only allowed to be discussed privately; the recognition of sex workers’ sexual and reproductive rights in North Macedonia where their recognition as a key population in the HIV-prevention programme has produced ambiguous relationships between CSOs; state institutions and sex workers; the participants’ experiences of exclusion from women’s rights organisations; and the unequal power relations between sex workers, CSOs vis a vis state institutions.
The Minor Field Study “Where are the sex workers?” is available in English and it can be accessed/downloaded HERE.