This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Laura Agustín | |
|---|---|
| Name | Laura Agustín |
| Occupation | Researcher, writer |
| Known for | Migration studies, sex work research |
Laura Agustín is a researcher and writer known for her work on migration, informal labor, and sex work, advocating for decriminalization and analyzing migration policy. Her work engages with debates involving scholars, activists, and institutions across Europe and the Americas, contributing to discussions around trafficking, labor rights, and policy reform.
Agustín was born in Spain and trained in social research and journalism, studying within contexts connected to institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Barcelona, University of Granada, and University College London. Her formative years overlapped with broader European policy debates influenced by bodies like the European Commission, Council of Europe, United Nations, International Organization for Migration, and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. During this period she encountered work by figures and organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Paul Farmer, Judith Butler, and Michel Foucault, which shaped her critique of dominant narratives about migration and sex work.
Agustín's career spans research, journalism, and consultancy, with engagements across networks linked to Open Society Foundations, European Parliament, United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, and various nongovernmental organizations. She has participated in conferences associated with International Sociological Association, American Anthropological Association, European Society of Criminology, and International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society. Her comparative work dialogues with scholars and concepts tied to Saskia Sassen, Arjun Appadurai, Pierre Bourdieu, Nancy Fraser, and Zygmunt Bauman, while also interacting with policy environments involving Deportation, Border control, Anti-trafficking, and labor regulation debates shaped by institutions such as Eurostat, Frontex, and International Labour Organization. She has written for outlets and platforms including The Guardian, The Independent, BBC, The New York Times, Open Democracy, and think tanks like Chatham House and Brookings Institution.
Agustín's major works include the book "Sex at the Margins" and numerous articles and essays that contest prevailing victimization frameworks associated with anti-trafficking campaigns led by entities such as United States Department of State, European Commission anti-trafficking initiatives, and advocacy coalitions like EVAW (European) and Polaris Project. Her approaches draw on methodologies and discussions from researchers and texts linked to Claudia Malacrida, Kathryn E. H. Laing, Donna Haraway, Nancy Hartsock, and Gayatri Spivak. She critically examines how legislation like Trafficking Victims Protection Act and policies shaped by Council of the European Union affect migrants, connecting to literatures involving Intersectionality, Critical legal studies, and debates in journals such as Feminist Review, Signs, Gender & Society, International Migration Review, and Current Sociology. Agustín advances the concept of the "migration industry" in conversation with work by Kevin Bales, Hernando de Soto, Lesley Abdela, and researchers at Institute of Development Studies and Migration Policy Institute.
Her positions have generated responses from academics, activists, and policymakers, prompting exchanges with authors and organizations including Carolyn Nordstrom, Heidi Safia Mirza, Janet Healy, Melissa Gira Grant, Jill McCracken, ECPAT International, and Girls Not Brides. Critics affiliated with organizations such as UN Women, Save the Children, World Bank, and advocacy networks in Washington, D.C., Brussels, and Geneva have challenged her readings of evidence used in anti-trafficking advocacy. Debates around her work intersect with wider disputes involving scholars tied to Radical Feminism, Sex Worker Rights Movement, and policy actors linked to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and European Institute for Gender Equality. Media coverage has appeared alongside reporting by The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and Associated Press, generating further public controversy.
Agustín's work has been recognized in academic and activist circles, receiving invitations and fellowships related to organizations such as International Migration Institute, Centre for Migration Studies, Royal Anthropological Institute, Social Science Research Council, and Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. She has been a visiting scholar at institutions including Columbia University, New York University, University of California, Berkeley, Goldsmiths, University of London, and SOAS University of London, and has collaborated with networks like Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe.
Category:Living people Category:Migration scholars Category:Sex work researchers