In political and media debates about sex work and prostitution in Germany, there is a lot of discussion about “the Eastern European prostitutes”. However, these debates mainly reproduce numerous Eastern European stereotypes and also act as a projection surface for fears of migration. However, the realities of life for people from so-called “Eastern European” countries who engage in sex work in Berlin are much more complex. The book “Prekäre Freizügigkeiten” is an attempt to document the experiences and stories of sex workers from “Eastern Europe”. The author and social and cultural anthropologist Ursula Probst shows how gendered, sexualized, classist and racialized tensions between neoliberal “European” freedoms and precarization are expressed in everyday circumstances within and beyond sex work in Berlin and shape the everyday lives of these people. At this event, the author will present the book and discuss how current debates about “Eastern Europe” and “Eastern European prostitutes” obscure these structural conditions and precariousness in favor of perpetuating common stereotypes.

Ursula Probst (she/her) is a social and cultural anthropologist and research associate at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin. She works on issues related to sexual economies, labour migration, health and the gendered, sexualized and racialized construction of “Eastern Europe” in Germany. In addition to her research on sex work in Berlin, she is currently working on the experiences of mobile systemically relevant workers with the pandemic-related regulations in Germany.

Moderated by Ernestine Pastorello. The event will be held in German spoken language.

Admission: 4 €. Location: Schwules Museum, Room 4

Foto: Ursula Probst

“Prekäre Freizügigkeiten” is published by transcript.