Bordering Sex Work: Everyday Policing and Migration Control in Zurich’s Sex Industry

Abstract Methods Using the “state from below” approach, this article examines how law enforcement operates in the context of sex work in the city of Zurich, drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with police officers, sex workers and social workers, as well as participant observation conducted between 2025 and 2026. Results In the sex industry in Zurich, the commercial police functions primarily as an enforcer of migratory control, legitimized through narratives of protection and anti-trafficking. The anti-trafficking unit, on the other hand, focusses on politicized and spectacularized forms of violence. The discoursive focus on anti-trafficking within the police privileges certain forms of violence while obscuring not only everyday labour conditions and harm, but also the punitive systems behind controls that increase precarity rather than leading to material improvements. Conclusions Rather than eliminating mechanisms of control, the regulatory system reconfigures them, shifting policing toward the ongoing differentiation between “authorized” and “unauthorized” forms of sex work. The industry emerges as a borderscape in which access to rights and justice is conditional upon migratory status and compliance, and many sex workers find themselves in legal gray zones. Policy Implications Policy recommendations include reducing criminalizing and regulatory measures, eliminating repressive police controls, reducing fines, shifting administrative control toward labor conditions and expanding legal work opportunities for non-EU/EFTA workers. There should be more mechanisms of oversight over the police and avenues for complaints. Last but not least, sex workers must be included in policy-making concerning their own lives and work.