Abstract

This article illustrates the findings of an explorative study performed among immigrant prostitutes who work in the paid-sex market in a Northern Italian city. The study is based on twenty-four personal interviews with Albanian, Nigerian and Slav women. The interviews provide a view of recruitment procedures in the women's countries of origin, their modes of travel to Italy and how they are obliged to work on the streets. The study also permits a reconstruction of the structure of organisations that exploit prostitution, an approximate estimate of prostitutes' earnings, and a description of relationships between prostitutes and their clients.