Reinforcing National Borders in the Context of Regional Integration: Female Migration and Sexuality in the Andean Subregion

This article combines studies of migration, sexuality, gender and border policies. The aim is to explain the role which moral and sexual behavior play as markers of differentiation and hierarchization in places which are geographically and culturally close, and formally integrated by regional economic agreements, like the Andean sub-region of South America. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Colombian and Peruvian women who are migrants in Ecuador, it shows how the exoticization/erotization of these women, who are regarded as "foreign prostitutes" or "sex trafficking victims", are symbolically connected to an open, permissive and vulnerable border and thus justifies stricter border controls.