This report, from researchers at Hunter College of the City University of New York and University of Southern California, aims to shed light on the experiences of Chinese and Korean immigrant women working in illicit massage parlors in Los Angeles County and New York City. Media accounts have documented raids, mass arrests and undercover stings of illicit massage parlors in US cities and suburbs. Often lost in these accounts are the daily experiences of the women workers from their own perspectives. Why are women working in these establishments and under what conditions do they labor? What is the arrest process like for them? What solutions can be offered that do not further penalize, traumatize, or victimize an already vulnerable population? This report aims to answer some of these questions, and offer recommendations for policy and practice, based on in-depth interviews with 116 women working in illicit massage parlors.
John J. Chin is a Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is also the director of Hunter College’s Graduate Program in Urban Planning. His research has focused on the role of community institutions in the delivery of social and health services, particularly to under-served communities, such as immigrant communities and communities of color. He is also interested in how key community-based institutions in immigrant and minority communities shape community values and norms, particularly in relation to controversial or sensitive topics, like HIV. Prior to his academic/research career, he helped to found the Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (now a Federally Qualified Health Center known as Apicha Community Health Center), where he served as Deputy Executive Director.
Professor Chin is the Principal Investigator of a 5-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health on Asian immigrant religious institutions and their potential role in HIV prevention for Asian immigrant communities. Prior to coming to Hunter College, Professor Chin was a Senior Research Associate for 6 years at the New York Academy of Medicine. Previously, he was also an assistant professor of clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University (Mailman School of Public Health) and a visiting assistant research scientist at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to his academic/research career, Professor Chin was on staff for 8 years at the the Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), a NYC-based nonprofit organization, of which he was a co-founder and Deputy Executive Director. He also worked for the NYC Commission on Human Rights and the NYC Comptroller’s Office. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University and an M.S. in Urban Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research.
