Everyday security: exploring experiences and practices in sex work in The Netherlands

In The Netherlands, security has a central role both in policy discourses and sex workers' publications. Nevertheless, given the very different interventions demanded by the different actors, legitimized by the same concern for security, it seems that their understanding of security differs. What it takes and means for sex workers to be safe in their job seems to be different for municipal agencies and its officials, and this might lead to a gap in ensuring sex workers’ security and safety. This research analyses sex workers’ everyday experiences and practices of security compared to the official municipal’s security strategies and approaches towards sex work in The Hague. In this sense, it analyses how different approaches to and practices of security can impact the lives of sex workers. Through a feminist qualitative methodology, this research found and argues that sex workers' security is more complex and diverse than the prevention from physical violence and sexual-related diseases, by showing how different laborrelated insecurities and their social status are part of their everyday concerns, experiences, and practices of security. In this sense, this research argues that the governmental and municipal approach to sex work in The Hague fails to guarantee labor-related securities by focusing on public health risks and immigration control, rather than sex workers' rights, re-producing precarious work conditions for sex workers.