Abstract:
Engagement in migrated sex work is involvement in the act of leaving one’s own country to
work in sex industry in another country. Reports have shown that there is an upsurge in the
number of young women, particularly those from Edo State, involved in Migrated Sex Works
(MSWs). Previous studies have focused more on Sex work s’ (SWs) prosecution, rehabilitation
and reintegration than the predisposing factors. This study, therefore was carried out to
investigate psychological (self-esteem, Fixed Mindset – FM and Nymphomaniac Urge –NU),
social (Peer Group Pressure – PGP, Parental Pressure – PP, and Luxury and Materialism
– L & M) and Economic (Get-rich Syndrome – GrS, Employment Status – ES and Income
Status – IS) determinants of young women’s engagement in MSWs in Edo State, Nigeria.
The Functional, Feminist and Labelling theories of sexuality were used as the framework, while
the survey design of the correlation type was adopted. The Benin Zonal Command Office of
National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in person (NAPTIP) was purposively selected.
The simple random sampling was adopted in selecting 451 MSWs from the Zonal Command’s
Transit Shelter. The instruments used were MSWs Engagement Scale (r=0.83), and
Psychological (r=0.81), Social (r=0.74) and Economic (r=0.79) factors questionnaires. Key
informant interviews were conducted with four NAPTIP officers, while in-depth interviews
were also conducted with 12 MSWs in NAPTIP offices in Edo (7) and Lagos headquarters (5).
Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment
correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, whilequalitative data were
content-analysed.
The MSWs were aged 18-20 (6.0%), 21-25 (52.7%), 26-30 (35.3%) and 31-35years (6.0%).
Their years of involvement in MSW were 2000 – 2005 (3.1%), 2006 – 2010 (27.9%), 2011 –
2015 (55.0%) and 2016 – 2017 (14.0%), while their destination countries were Italy (38.4%),
Libya (25.2%), South Africa (12.9%), Spain (8.2%), United Arab Emirates (7.3%), Togo (7.3%)
and Morocco (0.4%). The FM (r=0.31), Grs (r=0.25), IS (r=0.22), ES (r=0.20), NU
(r=0.20), PP (r=0.19), and L & M (r=0.10) had positive relationships with engagement in
MSWs, while self-esteem and PGP had none. Economic (F(3.447)=22.27; Adj. R2 = 0.12),
psychological (F(3.447)=16.33; Adj.R2=0.09) and social (F(3.447)=11.57; Adj. R
2=0.7) made
significant joint contribution to engagement of young women in MSW, accounting for 12.0%,
9.0% and 7.0% of the variances respectively. The L & M (=-3.33), IS (=0.57), ES (=0.31),
PP (=0.31), FM (=0.28) and GrS (=0.22) made relative contributions to engagement in
MSWs, while self-esteem, NU and PGP did not. Poor state of the economy, greed and societal
and family delusions pushed young ladies into believing that there is a better greener pasture
in host countries. Besides, the untouchable mindset of the cartels accounted for the continuous
thriving of MSW.
Fixed mindset, get-rich syndrome, income status, employment status, nymphomaniac urge,
parental pressure, luxury and materialism influenced young women’s engagement in migrated
sex works in Edo State, Nigeria. These factors should be addressed to reduce young women’s
engagement in migrated sex work.
