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2. In many countries of Central or Eastern Europe too, the inadequate, non-existent<br />

or disappearing social system increasingly throws off responsibility on<br />

to the shoulders of women.<br />

3. There also exists in many countries a tradition of emigration in search of<br />

work. It is nothing unusual here to look for or to have a job in another country.<br />

4. Educational qualifications, above all good qualifications, are increasingly expensive.<br />

Many young women believe that in Germany they can earn the money<br />

for their own education which they want to begin in their own country.<br />

5. Alcoholism and violence in the families are often a reason for girls to flee from<br />

home. Against this background they become an easy prey for middle-men and<br />

operators such as smugglers and human traffickers.<br />

6. At the same time there lives in the heads of many, especially young women, a<br />

picture that can be described as the “Pretty Woman Syndrome”: the dream of<br />

wealth and happiness. Women are presented and perceived above all as erotic<br />

objects. Then why not make a virtue out of necessity? Sex work can then seem<br />

an attractive path to rising in the social scale.<br />

7. Along with all these factors there is also still the myth of Western Europe, allegedly<br />

promising freedom, prosperity and modernity.<br />

At all events a distinction is to be made between emigration in search of work,<br />

which women look for because of the situations of need just described, and trade<br />

in women, through which they are brought into a situation which they can no<br />

longer themselves control. The boundaries are, however, fluid since many middle-men<br />

lure women with promises and then force them into jobs in the sex industry.<br />

The desire �of many � women � to move to �the countries � of Western Europe<br />

in order to build themselves a better life is an important reason for the problem<br />

of world-wide migration and female trading for the purposes of domestic service,<br />

marriage and prostitution. Significant almost everywhere is the rising responsibility<br />

of women for the economic survival of their families. So not a few of<br />

those who arrive in Western Europe and manage to earn some money send the<br />

greater part of their earnings back to the homeland.<br />

Sexual Misuse of Children<br />

EXPLoita Tion<br />

“Poverty and the lack of training and career perspectives make it easy for human<br />

traffickers to recruit women and children for prostitution.” 4 In 2004 the 3 rd<br />

Medical Faculty of the University of Prague carried out a second descriptive<br />

4 Cathrin Schauer, Jeder holt sich, was er will. In: Mythos Europa; Osteuropa, No. 56,<br />

6/2006, 240.<br />

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� � � � ���������������������� �<br />

– IN <strong>THE</strong> MIDDLE <strong>OF</strong> EUROPE – 133

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