Baumann (2013) reports from the north-eastern Hungarian city of Nyiregyhaza, where according to the report of the project group IRIS 2012 (Sex Educatio 2012) a majority of women prostituting themselves at the Zurich Sihlquai come from. Most of the Rroma houses in Nyiregyhaza were formerly barracks for Hungarian soldiers who were neglected since the 70s. The settlement of the Rroma is a segregated place behind the railway tracks, called Huszar. Unemployment among the residents of Huszar is blatantly high and lies, according to a university study around 70%. There is a kind of word of mouth in Nyiregyhaza about the fast money that can be earned at the Zurich streets. Also, as emphasized by the study of Sex Educatio, prostitution in Hungary greatly restricted due to repressive legislation. According to the social worker Katalin Szoboszlai of Collina most women were pushed out of their own environment to work as prostitutes. Classic trafficking is rare. This is contradicted by statements of employees of the counselling centre “Flora Dora”, who find a smooth continuum between the extremes of trafficking and so-called voluntary prostitution: Even relatives can push or force their own to degrading activities.

The study of sex Educatio (2012) indicates that the majority of sex workers belong to the Zurich Rroma groups the Romungro or Olah. How they arrived at this information is not discussed. We know  that the original question in the study stated “are you Hungarian or Rroma?”. Most respondents replied Hungarian. How one arrived at the conclusion of a majority of Rroma is unclear in the study itself. The one-sided focus on Rroma is therefore to be critically questioned. Prostitution needs to be seen as a result of structural violence that arises from poverty, socio-economic circumstances and social exclusion. That there is a relationship between ethnicity and social segregation, is undeniable. It is questionable, however, to restrict the issue of poverty prostitution to Rroma and thus give to giving an ethnic dimension.

Sources:

• Baumann, Meret (2013) Trügerische Hoffnung auf schnelles Geld. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung vom 6.6.2013.
• Sex Educatio (Hrsg.) (2012) IRIS 2012: Die Situation von ungarischen Strassenprostituierten in ungarischen Städten und in Zürich. Downloadversion: www.sexeducatio.hu

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