Last week we had an, um, robust discussion here (“Hookers For The Handicapped”) about whether or not it was, or ought to be, morally licit to provide prostitutes for the disabled. Everything turned on whether or not sexual pleasure was a right, and whether or not it was moral to pay for, or to sell, sexual services.
That debate came to mind just now when, via David Frum, I read a Spectator report on how the famously permissive Dutch have been mugged by reality with regard to legalized prostitution. Excerpts:
The Dutch government hoped to play the role of the honourable pimp, taking its share in the proceeds of prostitution through taxation. But only 5 per cent of the women registered for tax, because no one wants to be known as a whore — however legal it may be. Illegality has simply taken a new form, with an increase in trafficking, unlicensed brothels and pimping; with policing completely out of the picture, it was easier to break the laws that remained. To pimp out women from non-EU countries, desperate for a new life, remains illegal. But it’s never been easier.
Legalisation has imposed brothels on areas all over Holland, whether they want them or not. Even if a city or town opposes establishing a brothel, it must allow at least one — not doing so is contrary to the basic federal right to work. To many Dutch, legality and decency have been irreconcilably divorced. It has been a social, legal and economic failure — and the madness, finally, is coming to an end.
The brothel boom is over. A third of Amsterdam’s bordellos have been closed due to the involvement of organised criminals and drug dealers and the increase in trafficking of women. Police now acknowledge that the red-light district has mutated into a global hub for human trafficking and money laundering. The streets have been infiltrated by grooming gangs seeking out young, vulnerable girls and marketing them to men as virgins who will do whatever they are told. Many of those involved in Amsterdam’s regular tourist trade — the museums and canals — fear that their visitors are vanishing along with the city’s reputation.
More:
Legalisation has not been emancipation. It has instead resulted in the appalling, inhuman, degrading treatment of women, because it declares the buying and selling of human flesh acceptable.
We will always, in some form or fashion, have prostitution with us. But it must never be acceptable, because to do so invites a deeper corruption. There’s a reason they call it vice, people. And if sex-for-sale leads to this kind of public sewer, maybe we should consider that there’s more to sex and sexuality than the satisfaction of desire.
miliukov 
Franklin Evans 
Sam M 
Hector_St_Clare 
The Wet One 
Erin — long time not-conservative, not-Catholic reader of your blog here, and saw your post referencing this comment thread over at And Sometimes Tea. I hope Zippy’s idiots don’t show up and start slagging on you again. But I did want to give some color to a few things you wrote above about Singapore, where I have lived a number of years as an expatriate.
There are indeed a large number of foreign maids in Singapore, and most local and expatriate families will have one or two. Mostly they come from the Philippines and Indonesia, though a number also come from Sri Lanka — expat families prefer Filipinos because they speak English well and don’t have religious dietary issues.
You cannot get into Singapore without a valid work permit[*], which for maids is usually granted by a licensed agency, though in some cases they can be recruited directly by the end employer, who still needs to provide for a valid permit. The agency normally pays for them to come over, and is usually reimbursed by the employer family (in many cases the maid will already be here, so this isn’t relevant). The employer family pays for insurance, health screening, posts a bond, covers payroll taxes, provides time and money for home leave, provides all clothing, room and board, and incidental expenses. Singapore recently passed a law requiring at least one day off per week, though most employer families had already done this. Holidays are also off. Salaries are not high by western standards, but there are minimal levels that are required, and most employers pay above the minimum. Virtually all of the salary is remitted home to the parents and siblings, who usually have access to the maid’s bank accounts — although for our maids, we have set up separate accounts for them so a portion is beyond the reach of their families. Most employers will secure the maid’s passport to prevent flight risk, or if the maid is involved in illegal activity to make it easier to deport her on very short notice (this is called “taking her to the airport”).
There is a strong network of maids, especially Filipinos, and they have support from their agency, whose interest it is to look after them, and the government takes allegations of abuse, under-/non-payment, excessive working hours very seriously. A violating family can be fined and blacklisted from getting another maid. It’s controllable because you have to register to get one — cases of maids working illegally are de minimis, although some try to moonlight by taking on work for second families — if caught, they are normally fined and blacklisted (can be sent home also), as is the employer family, so they normally don’t allow it.
For Americans, this all sounds quite strange, I admit. But it is the reality of living here (or in Hong Kong). These girls are often times the sole, or main, source of income for their families, frequently including their own children, back home. They work very hard, mostly away from home, for up to 20 years, and then they go back, and their children go out and do the same thing. The alternative is to live in absolute abject poverty, or prostitution, either back home or abroad. One of our maids saved enough money to buy part of a small farm in the rural Philippines and another is putting her children through school, so they won’t have to “do the same thing” (though her uncle steals the money sometimes).
Most of the families I know, which is a specific sample of expats and professional locals admittedly, treat their maids very well — not overly taxing responsibilities, free time, let the maids take classes if they wish, more frequent travel home, cell phones, internet access, evenings with friends. It’s always going to be an employer-employee relationship at heart, but if you’re relying on these girls to look after your children and your household, you realize quickly it is in your interest to look after them too.
Most local families that you see around town treat the maids fairly, but they work them harder. So the goal for most new maids is to gain some experience with a local family, and then try to reapply for a job with an expat one. American families are universally considered by the maid community to be the best gig — they are the kindest and pay the best. (I am assuming this is a way we all let ourselves feel better about what we are doing.) Scandinavians and other Northern Europeans are also sought out, while British are generally thought of as a bare step above a local Chinese family.
And of course there are real jerks. People who physically abuse their made, overwork them, don’t pay them, isolate them, feed them inadequately. This is not terribly common, but it certainly happens, and it is most likely with girls who are brought directly from Indonesia or places with no/little English instruction, often by locals from that same place, or local Chinese families that don’t feel any particular need to be able to communicate clearly with the maid anyway. These are the girls that are at risk of not being protected by the system. This has led to cases of the maid murdering the employer, and in one case the maid killed the disabled daughter of the family by throwing her off the roof of a high rise — Singapore has capital punishment for murder, but in both cases the maids were given 20 years; both were teenagers, mostly isolated from the outside world, and with extremely low IQs — and had been recruited directly from rural Indonesia.
Each year a number of maids fall to their deaths from high rises because the employer insists on cleaning the outside of the windows… Government passed a law making it illegal to require it, but a lot of maids do it anyway.
My point of this is not to rebut or confirm Erin’s observations about maids in Singapore. Just some local color. No one can say this is an easy set of choices for the maids, but for many it may — may — be the least bad option, and with some luck, they can end up with a family that respects them and their dignity, treats them well, and gives them a chance to improve the lot for their family back home, up to the point of breaking the cycle. For ones that don’t have that, there are safeguards that mostly work, most of the time. But there certainly are exceptions and those that are failed by the system.
But this is absolutely relevant to the discussion of prostitution, which in Singapore is legalized and regulated. But there is a large gray market that also exists. I’ll pick that up in another comment a bit later.
[*]technically you could come in as a tourist, but any immigration official would be very skeptical of anyone who fit the profile of a maid without a return ticket and clear plans for accommodations. And it’s unlikely anyone would hire an undocumented worker anyway.