Moonlighting in the nightlife

From indentured to precarious labor in Los Angeles Koreatown’s hostess industry

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18972762
AutoresCarolyn Choi (0009-0002-2072-9985, University of Southern California, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume20
Fascículo4
Páginas446-462
Data de publicação2017-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSexualities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460716651419
OpenAlexW2552054225
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas23

This article explores the emergence of precarious work within the hostess industry of Los Angeles Koreatown, an ethnic enclave cited as a hotbed of sex trafficking. Hostesses provide companionship, flirtation, and entertainment to male patrons in drinking settings. While hostess work in Koreatown historically relied on indentured migrant workers from South Korea, the 2008 recession combined with shifting US immigration laws transformed the occupational structure of the hostess industry to a contingency-based labor system, which increasingly depends on the labor of local US women. These women turn to hostess work in Koreatown because of their displacement from jobs in the dominant US labor market. I argue that the emergence of precarious labor in Koreatown’s hostess industry reflects larger economic shifts within the labor market and political economy of Los Angeles. Looking at hostess work in Los Angeles Koreatown’s sexual economy provides a window to the labor instability of young women in the USA and across borders

Casual · Economics · Economy · Immigration · Nightlife · Political science · Politics · Precarious work · Recession · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Sex work and related issues