Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Despite evidence that criminalization promotes stigma, violence, HIV/STI burden and labour rights violations among sex workers, in 2014 Canada enacted end-demand sex work legislation (Protection of Exploited Communities and Persons Act, PCEPA) which upholds the criminalization of clients and third party activities while leaving the sale of sex legal. However, selling sex services remains explicitly criminalized for temporary residents and open work permit holders: this additional criminalization may compound documented health and labour inequities among im/migrant workers. Evidence suggests most im/migrant sex workers in Canada are legal immigrants; yet face unique vulnerabilities including racism, stigma, and language barriers resulting in poor healthcare access. Qualitative research suggests im/migrant sex workers may fear jeopardizing their legal status (i.e., work permit) as a result of police interactions, which has been shown to impede reporting violence to authorities and limit health access through fear of disclosing sex work to health providers. Authorities' broad discretion in enforcing sex work and immigration laws, and the conflation of sex work (consensual exchange of sex services) and sex trafficking (forced sexual labour) among racialized women may exacerbate barriers to healthcare and legal protections. Given that punitive PCEPA and immigration enforcement may disproportionately impact im/migrant sex workers, there is an urgent need to assess how such criminalization impacts their health and human rights. As policy shifts impacting im/migrant sex workers in Canada have occurred despite a dearth of evidence on their experiences, and given the PCEPA's stated goal of protecting vulnerable communities, I will evaluate how shifts in criminalized interactions post-PCEPA relate to im/migrant sex workers' health access and human rights to inform national and global policy discussions on end-demand legislation.