Hoppy Easter!
Aussie Employment!
While a 2011 public inquiry revealed that only 0.08 percent of student visa holders in Australia were working in the country as sex workers, the public and media attention has, not so surprisingly, focused on how international study may create "a second pathway to sex work for migrants to Australia."
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, their report indicates that around half of migrant sex workers enter Australia as international students. While the survey interviewed sex workers in most major cities, it mainly focused on the Sydney area, revealing that the majority of respondents were from Asia, and more likely to work in massage parlors than be Sydney escorts.
As you'd likely expect, migrant student respondents to the survey referenced education debt as well as need to support their families. Cameron Cox, chief executive of Sex Workers Outreach Project in Sydney, pointed out how most of those who enter in the sex work industry choose to do so and that sex work provides a "good job where they have flexible hours."