The Korean parlors are part of a decentralized network that operates in practically every major city and increasingly in rural areas, Ellerman says. The parlors share information; the people who set up and run the parlors move from state to state setting up new ones.
One owner may control parlors in several states, trafficking women back and forth. Traditionally, the owner hires a brothel keeper, usually an older Korean woman. Many of the women were first prostitutes around US military bases in Korea; some erican GIs.
Most of the marriages failed, Ellerman says. “Most of the women, who didn’t speak English, were outcasts in the Korean community here because they had married a GI and were in the sex industry, so they couldn’t easily get jobs or support from the community. They were left with very few options and easily recruited into a massage parlor.”
Some parlor workers are from Thailand and other Asian countries, but those most commonly selling sex are younger Koreans in their late teens to late twenties, brought to America with the promise of a new life and jobs at places such as restaurants
They are smuggled in from Canada and Mexico and arrive owing the smuggler a large debt. Continue reading “Most massage parlors are operated by Koreans and Latinos”