Resistance in Care: How Asian Migrant Massage and Sex Workers Resist COVID-19 Stigma, Anti-Asian Sentiment, and State Policing through Community-Building

The commodification of intimacy, especially in the global North, has heightened in global capitalism, and massage work, positioned in the lower-class spectrum of intimacy labor, stigmatized and devalued, has been taken up mostly by women who are lower class, recent immigrants, racial or ethnic minorities (Boris & Parrenas, 2010). This study explores how Asian migrant massage and sex workers in New York City and Los Angeles in the United States formed and strengthened networks of care within their immigrant communities, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Atlanta shooting. Using twenty-three in-depth interviews, and fieldwork from September 2022 to December 2023, with Asian migrant workers and advocates, the study investigates why state and patriarchal efforts to exercise "justice" often fail and how these workers take matters into their own hands.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the stigmatization of Asian workers, who were increasingly perceived as threats to public health and purity. This led to the shutdown of their businesses, as well as increases in vandalism, robbery, and violence. In response to heightened anti-Asian sentiment and policing, Asian workers—often stereotyped as "quiet," "submissive," and hypersexualized—developed interactive and agential strategies to survive and avoid unsafe situations, such as sexual assault, robbery, and police stings, without relying on law enforcement or traditional patriarchal "saviors" who often pose greater risks due to the workers' labor and immigration status.

The study finds that policing and hate crimes targeting ethnic enclaves endanger the daily lives of Asian migrant workers. For non-English-speaking workers, ethnic enclaves and networks provided spaces of friendship, care, and empowerment. In an environment characterized by fear and exclusion perpetuated by White America, the carceral state, and the deportation regime—which views these workers as either "victims to save" or "deviant bodies to exterminate"—self-acceptance and "Caring Despite" emerge as acts of resistance.