NOT YOUR RESCUE PROJECT
Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice
Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam
Afterword by Robyn Maynard
Foreword by Harsha Walia
Haymarket Books (November 12, 2024)
Trade paper • ISBN-13: 9798888900864 •US $21.95 • 6 in x 9 in • 320 pgs.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A landmark abolitionist primer on migration, sex work, policing, and the “anti-trafficking industry”—and a powerful argument about who is really leading the way toward justice: migrant sex workers themselves.
In this impassioned corrective to decades of misguided, carceral approaches to migration and sex work, long-time organizers Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam deftly expose the harms of criminalization in the name of “anti-trafficking” and lift up migrant sex workers’ organizing in the US, Canada, and elsewhere. In doing so, they make the compelling case that the only effective response to the needs of migrant sex workers must be led by migrants in the sex trade, as they fight for rights, safety, and autonomy. Gallant and Lam illustrate how this movement is taking aim at the root causes of violence and abuse: the white supremacist securitization of borders, the criminalization of both migration and sex work, the patriarchial devaluation of women’s labor, and forced displacement due to climate disaster, war, and poverty—all fueled by racial capitalism.
An indispensable exploration of the relationship between migration and sex work—and the underlying societal conditions they reflect—Not Your Rescue Project is a thorough indictment of the anti-trafficking industry as an engine of criminalization and state violence, and an instructive account of the emancipatory politics already being practiced by migrant sex workers in their organizing. Throughout, Gallant and Lam place migrant sex workers at the center of struggles against border imperialism, carceral states, and capitalism—dispelling a range of poisonous myths and paving the way for deeper alliances across movements with the shared goal of dismantling and abolishing carceralism in all its forms.
PRAISE:
Not Your Rescue Project is a powerful indictment of the violence and injustice that Global South migrant sex workers face under the banners of rescue and saviourism. It offers forthright and compelling documentation of the struggles and humanity of such migrants who live and work in Canada and the US, while providing a searing critique of anti-prostitution, victim-centered approaches, including the anti-human trafficking industry. This is a much-needed book that brings significant depth to a growing trend in global sex worker rights research—a crucial call to action for students, researchers, and activists concerned with migrant, sexuality, and feminist and global worker justice and rights.”
Kamala Kempadoo, Professor Emerita, Social Science, York University
“You will never be the same after reading, studying, teaching, and sharing Not Your Rescue Project. Curating personalized interludes, historical analysis, and grassroots movement archiving, this book is a masterpiece composition of survival, self-defense, and liberationist testimonial strategies. Migrant sex workers are truth-tellers, solidarity organizers, community builders, and grounded critical practitioners who are permanently reshaping abolitionist, anti-imperialist, anti-violence, radical feminist, and various other streams of ‘left’ mobilization. Simultaneously creative, generous, and graceful in its layered invitations to engage in the complex challenges of ‘joint struggle,’ this foundational text calls on every justice-oriented community to engage with the incomparable radicalism of migrant sex worker praxis.”
Dylan Rodríguez, scholar, teacher, movement collaborator, and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Riverside
“Not Your Rescue Project exposes the right-wing ‘rescue’ fraud perpetrated by the sex work prohibitionists and their carceral allies by centering the lived experience of migrant sex workers organizing for their own liberation. It is essential reading for anyone interested in pushing back against those who mobilize state violence in the guise of helping vulnerable workers.”
—Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing
“Intellectually trenchant, emotionally affecting, and deeply needed, Not Your Rescue Project is absolutely essential reading for anyone involved in social justice, labor activism, human rights, migrant justice, and sex education. For far too long, misconceptions, racism, anti–sex work stigma, and blatant opportunism have shaped legislation and policy on sex work to the severe detriment of those with the most to lose. Elene Lam and Chanelle Gallant set the record straight with powerful analysis and storytelling drawn from many years of solidarity and advocacy work with migrant sex workers, exposing the exploitation and outright deception perpetrated by the so-called anti-human trafficking movement. This is one of the most important books on migrant justice, labor justice, and sex worker rights that I have read in the past decade and I am so grateful that it exists.”
Kai Cheng Thom, author of I Hope We Choose Love
“Many queer people are familiar with the saying ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ In this rousing book on migrant sex worker struggle, the founder of the Butterfly network Elene Lam and organizer Chanelle Gallant demonstrate how the joyful labor of solidarity lifts everyone’s gaze to a just and liberated horizon for all, in stark contrast with the prevalent saviorist and humanitarian approaches to sex trafficking. When butterflies get together to extract minerals from a shallow patch of muddy water, it is called a ‘puddle club.’ Not Your Rescue Project opens our eyes to the powerful human ‘puddle clubs’ all around us, beating their wings for justice and somehow turning the mud slung at them into nourishment. This book makes joining them irresistible.”
Sophie Lewis, author of Enemy Feminisms and Abolish the Family
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Chanelle Gallant is an author, activist, and movement strategist who has worked in the areas of sexuality and criminalization for over two decades. Her writing has appeared in dozens of publications, most recently the New York Times best-seller Pleasure Activism, Beyond Survival, and Defund, Disarm, Dismantle, and her work has been discussed in the Washington Post, the Advocate, Esquire, Vice, and every national media outlet in Canada. Chanelle is on the national board for Showing Up For Racial Justice and has helped to found or support numerous sex worker organizations. She has an MA in sociology and was a Lambda Literary Fellow.
Elene Lam is an activist, artist, community organizer, educator, and human rights defender. She has fought for sex worker, migrant, gender, labor, and racial justice for over twenty years. She is the founder of Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) and the cofounder of Migrant Sex Workers Project. She has used diverse and innovative approaches to advocate social justice for migrant sex workers, such as leadership building and community mobilization. She holds a master’s of law and master’s of social work. She is a PhD candidate at McMaster University (School of Social Work) and is studying the harm of the anti-trafficking movement. She was awarded the Constance E. Hamilton Award for Women’s Equality by the City of Toronto.
RIGHTS INFORMATION:
Please contact subagents for the following languages and territories:
| Language/Territory | Subagent |
|---|---|
| China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam | Big Apple Agency |
| Dutch | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| English outside North America | David Grossman Literary Agency |
| French | Deborah Druba Agency |
| German | Paul & Peter Fritz AG Literatur Agentur |
| Greek | Read n' Right Agency |
| Hebrew | The Deborah Harris Agency |
| Italian | Berla & Griffini Rights Agency |
| Japanese | The English Agency (Japan) Ltd |
| Korean | BC Agency, or Korea Copyright Center |
| Portuguese | RIFF Agency |
| Russia/Baltics/Eastern Europe | Prava I Prevodi |
| Scandinavia | Sebes & Bisseling Literary Agency |
| Spanish in Latin America | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Spanish in Spain | MB Agencia Literaria |
| Turkish | Anatolialit Agency |
For all other languages/territories, please contact Roam Agency.