Their Narrative: A Feminist Study Examining The Everyday Lives of Migrant Girls Who Sell Sex In Chipinge, Zimbabwe
Date
2023-08
Authors
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Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
This thesis explores the everyday experiences of unaccompanied migrant girls who sell sex in Chipinge, a small town in eastern Zimbabwe. The participants of this qualitative study were four adolescent girls, ages 16 to 18 years old, of Mozambique descent. Guided by feminist standpoint theory, intersectionality, and adolescent theory, the study examined three main areas: (1) factors that lead adolescent girls to migrate unaccompanied; (2) trajectories of unaccompanied migrant girls into selling sex; and (3) how unaccompanied migrant girls who sell sex access their daily needs in their host countries. Drawing on arts-based research (ABR), the main methods used were storytelling and mapping. Unstructured interviews were also conducted with each participant after the ABR phase of the study ended. Although each participant had unique circumstances that led them to migrate unaccompanied, most explained family circumstances such as, death of parents, violence in the home, and poverty as being immediate drivers for migrating to Zimbabwe alone. Each participant also had unique experiences that influenced their decisions to sell sex, but social networks and exploitation in other informal livelihood activities played a major role. Selling sex was the primary livelihood strategy that the participants in this study engaged, which enabled them to access their basic needs of accommodation, food, and childcare. Whilst being an important livelihood strategy, selling sex exposed the participants to risks of violence and health, including HIV.
Description
Research Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of a Master of Arts in Migration and Displacement, Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.
Keywords
Unaccompanied, Adolescent girls, Migration, Selling sex, UCTD
Citation
Nyahuma, Gloria Nyaradzo. (2023). Their Narrative: A Feminist Study Examining The Everyday Lives of Migrant Girls Who Sell Sex In Chipinge, Zimbabwe. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40088