Reproducing geographies of desire: Foreign immigrant women workers in a local hammam

Today, Asian women's global body labour migrations are becoming increasingly common through networks and intermediary firms. These migration dynamics increase the clustering of foreign masseuses operating in the hammam sector, while at the same time enabling the expansion of geographies of desire. Therefore, this study focuses on the migration and employment processes of Asian women and examines in detail the role of intermediary firms and networks used by migrant women. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 51 people, including Asian migrant women, intermediary firms, employers and customers. The findings suggest that the hammam constitutes a multi-actor space of the geography of desire. While this increasing appearance through intermediary firms and networks has led to the introduction of a new form such as massage into traditional hammams in Alanya, it has also enabled the reproduction of geographies of desire. Ultimately, the active presence of Asian migrant women in the hammam sector is an important example that emphasizes the female dimension of migration. The intermediate structures used by this migrant group contribute to the formation of geographies of desire in various regions by facilitating the spread of global body labour to different geographies.