Search

Your search keyword '"Minshu Mo"' showing total 5 results
Start Over Author "Minshu Mo"
5 results on '"Minshu Mo"'

1. Protection or police harassment? Impacts of punitive policing, discrimination, and racial profiling under end-demand laws among im/migrant sex workers in Metro Vancouver

Author

Bronwyn McBride, Shira M. Goldenberg, Alka Murphy, Sherry Wu, Minshu Mo, Kate Shannon, and Andrea Krüsi

Subjects
Sex work, Migrant sex workers, End-demand, Trafficking, Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270
Abstract

In 2014, Canada implemented end-demand sex work legislation which leaves the sale of sex under some circumstances legal. However, immigration policies based on discourses positioning sex work as exploitation and migration as trafficking continue to criminalize many im/migrant sex workers. Despite community reports of punitive policing, limited research has explored how police interactions with im/migrant sex workers have impacted labour conditions since this legislative shift. As part of a longstanding community-based Vancouver study, we drew on the conceptual framework of slow violence to analyze 20 in-depth interviews with sex workers born outside Canada. Despite rhetoric positioning im/migrant sex workers as victims deserving protection, participants described experiences of punitive, racialized, and stigmatizing police treatment. Fear of being ‘outed’ as a sex worker and living with precarious immigration status undermined participants' ability to seek police protections; yet when they did seek assistance after experiencing violence/theft, police were unsupportive or discriminatory. Our findings suggest that policies depicting im/migrant sex workers as victims act not to protect them, but to justify targeted repressive, racist policing that severely undermines women's occupational safety. Our results illustrate the harms of policies conflating sex work with trafficking; demonstrate the inherent opposition between legislative aims to protect those who sell sexual services and to abolish the sex industry; and interrogate who the state affirms as a deserving victim. The full decriminalization of sex work, removal of prohibitions on sex work among im/migrants, and community-led alternatives to the criminal justice system are urgently needed to uphold im/migrant sex workers' labour rights.

Published
2022
Full Text
View/download PDF

3. Lack of full citizenship rights linked to heightened client condom refusal among im/migrant sex workers in Metro Vancouver (2010–2018)

Author

Kate Shannon, Melissa Braschel, Minshu Mo, Shira M. Goldenberg, and Bronwyn McBride

Subjects
media_common.quotation_subject, Immigration, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Stigma (botany), HIV Infections, Article, Odds, law.invention, Condoms, 03 medical and health sciences, 0302 clinical medicine, Immigration policy, Condom, law, Humans, 030212 general & internal medicine, 10. No inequality, Citizenship, media_common, Sex work, Transients and Migrants, Sex Workers, 030505 public health, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Odds ratio, 0305 other medical science, Psychology, Demography
Abstract

In Canada, im/migrant sex workers face stigma, health access barriers, and overlapping marginalization, with end-demand law reforms in 2014 postulated to exacerbate these inequities. Yet, little quantitative evidence on how immigration status shapes HIV/STI risk exists. Drawing on community-based longitudinal cohort data (AESHA, 2010–2018), we used multivariable confounder models with logistic regression to model 1) the independent effect of precarious immigration status (any status revocable under criminal charges: permanent residency/temporary residency/undocumented) on client condom refusal, and 2) the moderating effect of precarious status on the relationship between condom refusal and exposure to end-demand law reform (2015-present). Over this 8-year study involving 758 sex workers in Metro Vancouver 16.0% were im/migrants, of whom 57% had precarious immigration status at baseline. 16.5% of participants experienced client condom refusal. Precarious immigration was associated with increased odds of facing condom refusal (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.53, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.37–4.68), and these odds were heightened post-end-demand law reforms (AOR 4.35, 95%CI 1.21–15.66). Our findings suggest that lack of citizenship rights may enhance barriers to safer sex negotiation and increase HIV/STI risk among sex workers, highlighting the need for sex work and immigration policy reforms.

Published
2020

4. Harms of workplace inspections for im/migrant sex workers in in-call establishments: Enhanced barriers to health access in a Canadian setting

Author

Melissa Braschel, Bronwyn McBride, Putu Duff, Shira M. Goldenberg, Kate Shannon, and Minshu Mo

Subjects
Adult, medicine.medical_specialty, Epidemiology, media_common.quotation_subject, education, Emigrants and Immigrants, Logistic regression, Article, Health Services Accessibility, Interviews as Topic, 03 medical and health sciences, 0302 clinical medicine, 5. Gender equality, Environmental health, medicine, Humans, Social inequality, 030212 general & internal medicine, Prospective Studies, Workplace, Sex work, media_common, 030505 public health, Sex Workers, Workplace violence, British Columbia, business.industry, Public health, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Odds ratio, Sex Work, Harassment, Female, Worry, 0305 other medical science, business
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Given shifting sex work criminalization and enforcement in Canada, this study examined worrying about workplace inspections by authorities amongst indoor sex workers in Vancouver (2014–2017). METHODS: Community-based prospective cohort of sex workers (AESHA). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression were used to investigate factors associated with worry about inspections. RESULTS: 23.9% of participants experienced workplace inspections; 51.6% worried about inspections. In multivariable analyses, worrying about inspections was associated with recent im/migration (adjusted odds ratio[AOR] 3.13; 95% confidence interval[CI] 1.77–5.53), police harassment (AOR3.49; 95%CI 1.92–6.34), and workplace violence (AOR1.66, 95%CI 1.09–2.51). In a multivariable confounder model, worry was independently associated with barriers to health access (AOR1.45, 95%CI 1.06–1.98). DISCUSSION: Im/migrant indoor workers are disproportionately impacted by concerns about workplace inspections, which was independently linked to enhanced barriers to health access. Current criminalization measures may exacerbate health inequities among im/migrant sex workers.

Published
2019

5. O13.6 Precarious legal immigration status linked to client condom refusal among sex workers in metro vancouver (2010–2018)

Author

Kate Shannon, Bronwyn McBride, Minshu Mo, Melissa Braschel, and Shira M. Goldenberg

Subjects
Legal status, business.industry, media_common.quotation_subject, Immigration, Odds ratio, Odds, law.invention, Condom, Immigration policy, law, Cohort, Medicine, business, Demography, media_common, Sex work
Abstract

Background Under new Canadian sex work laws (PCEPA) passed in 2014, sex workers with precarious legal status face exacerbated criminalization, yet little quantitative evidence exists on how legal immigration status shapes HIV/STI risk. This study aimed to model the effect of precarious status on client condom refusal; and the potential moderating effect of precarious status on the relationship between condom refusal and the post-PCEPA law reform period. Methods Longitudinal data were drawn from AESHA, a community-based cohort of 900+ sex workers in Vancouver (2010–2018). A multivariable confounder model using logistic regression with generalized estimating equations was developed to model the independent effect of precarious status (any immigration status that is revocable under criminal charges: permanent residency, temporary residency, and undocumented) on recent client condom refusal (forcing unprotected sex or intentionally breaking the condom) over the study period. A second multivariable confounder model examined the moderating effect of precarious status on the relationship between condom refusal and the post-PCEPA law reform period (2015-present). Results Over the 8-year study (n=758), 9.1% of participants had precarious status and 16.5% experienced condom refusal, with a total 196 events of condom refusal reported. In multivariable analysis adjusted for confounders, precarious status was independently associated with increased odds of facing condom refusal (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.53, 95% confidence interval[CI] 1.37–4.68). In a second multivariable confounder model, legal status moderated the relationship between condom refusal and the post-PCEPA law reform period: among women with non-precarious status, odds of condom refusal were not significantly different post-PCEPA (AOR 1.17, 95%CI 0.77–1.78), whereas women with precarious status faced 4-fold increased odds of condom refusal post-PCEPA (4.35, 95%CI 1.21–15.66). Conclusion Laws criminalizing sex work among im/migrants in Canada enhance vulnerability among those with precarious status through presenting barriers to safer sex and increasing HIV/STI risk, highlighting urgent need for sex work and immigration policy reforms. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Published
2019

Catalog

Books, media, physical & digital resources
See catalog results