Korean Girls in Australia

It is quite easy to find Korean Girls working in Karaoke or Salon Room and Massage in Sydney, Australia. Most of the girls come to Australia under the working holiday visa.

 
According to an article: The women worked in a range of workplaces including karaoke bars, room salons (hostess bars), massage parlours and brothels. Each type of establishments had different sets of working hours and conditions. They were willing participants in the industry and many were lured by job advertisements, readily available on the internet, which often exaggerated the benefits of a move into the industry. Also despite their legal status(the majority had a working holiday visa that allowed them to work up to 20 hours a week), they were, in many cases and to different extents, victims of deception, exploitation, control and illegal activities.
They were often vulnerable to verbal abuse and other controlling behaviour by their brothel owners, mangers, and/or madams which were often enforced through a long list of house rules related to being late, absent or quitting without due notice. These rules were often subject to changes at employers’ discretion. More than half the women felt that they were deceived about their eventual working conditions and found their working conditions to be either worse or much worse than what they expected or heard. This was particularly the case among karaoke and room salon workers.
Even though it was not directly ‘sex work’, being unknown to most outside the Korean community, including Australian service providers and authorities, their work usually had a sexual aspect.



 Economic Motives 
Korean women’s movement to and employment in the Australian entertainment and sex industry was always the result of their voluntarily choice. In-depth interviews with these women, however, suggest that their choice has been influenced by various forces, both structural and situational, at play. Although economic necessity was often the primary motivation, there was a diversity of economic, social and individual circumstances shaping their motivation. In most cases, women did not have one single reason but a combination of many reasons that led them to come to Australia and find a job in the sex and entertainment industry: for better employment prospects; for better income; to obtain a new life experience; to learn English; to extend their study abroad; to support family members back home, to pay off personal debts; or to gather capital for starting their own businesses.
 Their migration dynamic in particular reflected the interplay of ‘push’ factors and ‘pull’ factors. Push factors may include negative aspects that make them leave Korea such as: economic motives; the trend of global movement; increased internationalisation of Korean culture; economic conditions in Korea; and the relatively more constraining Korean legal regime governing operation of the sex industry.
Pull factors may include positive aspects that induce them to come to Australia such as: established networks of international employment and their use of effective means of recruitment; immigration laws and prostitution laws in Australia, and the demand in Australia. In fact, these factors In all cases of Korean women interviewed in this study, the major motivation for their involvement in the Australian entertainment or sex industry was usually economic necessities, although also influenced by social and individual circumstances. The social reality that entertainment or sex work could earn more money than other work available to them might also have influenced their choice of work in Australia. Although, in most cases of the women, data was not available to indicate the socio-economic level of their family in Korea, the women were not necessarily from the lowest-income families in Korea and it was not necessarily poverty but economic necessity that played the most significant role in their entering into the industry in Australia.
For various reasons depending on the individual situation, all the women wanted to make money more than they could do from doing other work. All agreed that it was all about money. Priority was on making as much as possible as fast as possible. Some had to earn their living or support their families back home. Others needed to earn large sums of money to take home or to finance particular goals, such as more study, paying off personal debts, or gathering capital for starting their own businesses or for the lease/purchase of an apartment.
Half of 10 sex workers interviewed were financing or had financed their study in Australia through their work. With little language and more limited job options in Australia, many women were easily placed in economic difficulty, which pressured them to turn their eyes to entertainment or sex work as it was one of the fast and available ways in which they could earn their living. As one karaoke worker put:
 “When working at a restaurant, I could hardly afford to pay the rent. Although I worked eight hours a day, seven days a week, there was always no money left for me. Then I got involved in this work in a hope to make money little easily. Now I can afford to send some money to my parents(W, 24, karaoke worker)”.

 The fact that such work paid more than many other jobs available to them as well as offered comparatively flexible working hours might have functioned positively on their decision to enter the industry. They all agreed that money was the major attraction that pulled and kept them into the industry. Sex-related workers, in particular, often believed that this was the only way to improve their material position. One woman claimed that growing up in a poor family often increased these women’s likelihood to become economically and emotionally needy and attracted to luxurious life style that sex work could offer. She explained: “Except for some, most of working girls are from a relatively poor family. They do this work only for money. For all that, there’re some girls who rather spend their money on luxury shopping. But I understand them. They may be trying to get what they were never able to get (M, 29, brothel worker)”.

 After all, it was money that made them enter and remain in this line of work. As another put: “My initial intention was to work just for two weeks in order to earn money for my enrollment in college. But the money that I could earn from this job made me continue to work for more than a year. For anyone who wishes to start this work, I’d like to advice to think twice (C, 25, room salon worker)”.

For a typical massage worker, the pay for an hour is $80 (the customer was charged $165 per hour). Usually it is after 10% of "tax", the income is split half and half between owner and the girl. The working hour can be long, usually 5 days a week with 10 to 12 hours a day. The average income per day is $600, that mean each week they can earn $3000.



 The trend of globalisation and internationalisation in Korea 
Many women in this study indicated that one reason they came to Australia was to have the opportunity to travel around in a new country and learn English. A small percentage did not have a sex work experience back in Korea but willingly choose to entry the Australian industry asit gave them the opportunity to experience a foreign country. Fuelled by the spirit of adventure, they often perceived and described their involvement in the Australian entertainment or sex industry to be a short-lived and auxiliary part oftheir global exploration. For the majority of the women as well, friends with an experience of working in Australia were an important source of job information and a motivating force in their coming to and employment in Australia . With the help of friends already in the Australian industry, many said they were able to get enough information about possible risks before they came to Australia. By the same token, they were well aware of the need not to be controlled by employers by making contracts or receiving advance money but to choose employers that adhered to good practices



Established networks of international employment and the use of an effective means of recruitment
International employment networks based in Korea and the use of an effective means of recruitment may have played a significant role in the entry of Korean women into the Australian entertainment and sex industry.
various media articles have reported that established organised networks between organisers in Korea and operators in Australia are heavily involved in small/medium-scale operations that legally or illegally recruit and bring in Korean women into Australia. These networks have developed effective recruiting techniques. Publicising tempting job offers through the use of various channels, from advertisements in the press to posting blogs on the internet, they have been able to take advantage of modern technology to achieve their goal. The use of internet, in particular, offers recruiters a user-friendly, fast and anonymous means of recruiting accessible to a broad group of women. Interview findings also suggest that there were a large number of recruiters in Korea who were working as agents for Australia-based Korean recruiters of entertainment and sex workers. To maximise their business profit, many of the Korean business owners and madams in Australia seemed to be linked to these agents in Korea and form a group of organisers to bring in women. These people usually formed a small group of organisers (e.g. two or three people) rather than a large organised crime group astheir importation of the Korean women into Australia did not necessarily require illegal activities such as the production of fraudulent documentation. According to the interview data, a group of organisers often included one or two females, typically madams. These madams seem to play an important role in advertising and making contact with the women. One woman, working as a massage parlour madam, explained: “The recruitment of the workers is usually the responsibility of the madam. I use this particular internet website based in Korea to recruit Korean girls. I constantly put an ad on it. If I successfully bring in a girl, I get $1,000 per person from the business owner. Brokers get the same amount (D, 28, massage worker)”. Many women were lured by job advertisements that exaggerated the benefits of working and living in Australia. One woman said: “Overstated advertisements are really responsible. They say you can earn $2,000 a week and you’re given a free airline ticket if you work more than six months. If you’ve been in the industry for many years and become an old face, it sounds worthwhile as it’ll at least give you an opportunity for overseas travel (R, 22, karaoke worker)”.


Working Holiday (WH) visa 
Australia’s Working Holiday (WH) visa may be also important in influencing the influx of the Korean women into the Australian sex and entertainment industry. Australia allows Korean women to come on a working holiday visa and work as a sex worker. Unlessthere is a breach of visa conditions or any indication of sexual slavery or people trafficking, Australian law enforcement agencies are not required to take any action against sex workers on WH visas. Korea is one of the main source countries of working holiday makers in Australia. The majority of women also came to Australia on working holiday visas. They often referred to easy access to visas and work permit under the working holiday makers program (e.g. internet application and no requirement for language test) as a reason for their choice to come to Australia. One said: “Compared to U.S. and other countries, it is very easy to get a visa for travel to and work in Australia due to Working Holiday visa. Some countries like Japan and Canada, although also offering WH visa,require some kinds of language test(H, 28, brothel worker)”


 Demand in Australia 
One anonymous source from the industry (a man who identified himself as a Korean brothel employee and gave an account of the industry) estimated that over 60 % of the sex businesses in Sydney were owned by Asian Australians(mostly Chinese and a small number of Koreans), of whom many were former sex workers themselves. He said: After three to four years in business, these women get to learn how easily the business makes money and, in some cases, start their own business. This has facilitated a rapid increase of Asian businesses in the sex industry in Australia. Men tend to shop around and seek new faces, which has also contributed to the expansion of the industry (telephone interview, 2007)

 Economic conditions in Korea
The economic conditions in Korea represented by the economic downturn and increasingly limited employment options for young people might be another push factor. Interviews with many women indicated that the economic downturn in Korea (especially since the Asian economic crisis or in Korea the so-called IMF crisis in later 1990s) was pushing more and more women to migrate overseas in search of work and take up employment in the sex and entertainment industry. Many women suggested that the decline was concentrated at the low-price end of the market, which may be responsible for their coming to Australia. One karaoke worker explained: “The new laws might have had some impacts. But it is business as usual. The depressed economy rather led many customers to tighten their pockets. And the business got more and more competitive. Competition amongst girls got keener and keener. The top 10% of girls earn an extremely high income when the rest struggle to survive. The gap in their incomes sometimes becomes as big as more than 100 million won a month. For me, things are rather better here in Australia (S, 25, karaoke worker)”

Where do you find them?
http://www.rjsyd.com/
http://midasmarrickville.com/
http://masstige8.com/