Laura Agustin's critical analysis of migrant workers, service work and sexual labour succeeds in identifying a new perspective that challenges dominant current stereotypical assumptions of those who travel and/or work in the sex industry. After reading this book, I can confirm that it certainly is a small world. With the advent and swift rise in favour of mass media, the Internet and global communication in the blink of an eye, it is now far easier to see the bigger picture than ever before. From a narrow focus on the immediate present, both in terms of space and time, we are now afforded a broad-brush vision of life in all its living glory, across borders, across nations and across time. This is precisely what Laura Agustin accomplishes in Sex at the Margins.

The recent switch in focus from domestic violence to rape and sexual violence has mirrored a similar switch from a focus on the private and familial face of abuse to a focus on the wider global issue of abuse in the form of human trafficking. In this regard, Agustin's book is an eye-opener of sorts. For one thing, it fleshes out the hitherto unheard and unacknowledged perceptions of those who are allegedly ‘trafficked’. Further, it encourages in the reader a sense that to be trafficked is often a rational decision made by those who seek to travel for deeply personal reasons. In other words, the author asserts that the phrase ‘trafficked’ does not accurately describe the lives of some migrants. But, more than this, that the so-called ‘rescue industry’ actually serves to disempower migrant workers in the sex industry, oftentimes by challenging their ‘choice’ to travel and sell sex.

Often, migrant workers are constructed as being dispossessed of the place they belong to. However, it may be that some migrant workers actually choose to leave their home, i.e. instead of them being the passive recipients of homelessness, they are actually the agents of their own life story. Agustin reconceptualises this like so:

In support of her analysis, Agustin has researched widely and drawn on a varied repertoire of textual material brought together over a number of years throughout Europe, including NGO and government reports and research articles, policy and position papers, leaflets and educational matter, commentaries, texts of proposed laws, listserve discussions by sex work organisations and conference papers. This large quantity of material hints at the large number of projects the author visited and studied throughout her research.

Seven chapters comprise this deeply reflexive and astutely written book. Not wishing to convey the contents of each chapter, per se, what I will offer is a flavour of what is to come. Agustin names her chapters in order to tantalise and tempt the reader into delving further. For example, Chapter 1 is called ‘Sexual Commotion’, which indicates the disturbance and relative confusion surrounding the nature of sex. Chapter 2 is entitled ‘Working to Travel, Travelling to Work’, which challenges the stereotypical view of migrant workers. Chapter 3, ‘A World of Services’, goes on to illustrate the global nature of sex workers and trafficking. Chapter 4, ‘The Rise of the Social – and of Prostitution’, suggests the growing and global nature of the sex industry. In turn, Chapter five, ‘Grasping the Thing Itself: Methodology’, does just what it says, discusses the methods by which Agustin forms her analysis. In writing Chapter six, ‘From Charity to Solidarity: In the Field with Helpers’, Agustin argues for reflexivity in analysing the actions of social agents. Finally, Chapter seven, ‘Partial Truths’, hints at the obscurity of the sex industry and migrant workers that has been hitherto challenged.

Not really for the naive or uninitiated student, this book is aimed more at the perspicacity of well-read academics. This is a deeply thought-provoking book which will appeal to those of a highly critical mind, where negative public perceptions of migrant workers and those in the sex industry may be pushed aside in favour of a more open-minded analysis. If you seek a radical change from the norm, this book is for you.