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Investigation
Susan is a professional massage therapist but regularly gets asked for a 'happy ending'
Migrant women in Australia are having to negotiate sexual harassment in their workplace, with industry experts saying there is a racial element behind it.
Published 15 September 2022 9:37am
By Charis Chang
Source: SBS News
Key Points
- Migrant women in Australia are having to negotiate sexual harassment in their workplace.
- Susan (not her real name) arrived in Australia as an international student from Thailand more than a decade ago.
Susan (not her real name) arrived in Australia as an international student from Thailand more than a decade ago and has been working as a professional massage therapist for almost the entire time.
As part of her visa arrangement, she was allowed to work for 20 hours a week and so found a job doing housekeeping, as well as shifts as a massage therapist in Sydney. Masseuse work can be one of the easier jobs to get for someone who doesn't speak English well, she says, but over time she came to enjoy the profession.
She studied traditional Thai massage in Bangkok and has a Diploma of Remedial Massage from the Australian College of Massage. But while Susan loves her job, sexual harassment is a regular occurrence.
"Ninety-five per cent are good clients," she says. "When you are given good feedback, it feels good ... I love my work." But many men Susan has dealt with, especially in Sydney and in Thai-run businesses, have thought 'happy endings' - when a masseuse finishes the session with a sexual favour for the client - could be part of the service.
Susan (not pictured) has received inappropriate requests throughout her career. Source: Getty / Caia Image
Researchers from Monash University are trying to understand the experiences and responses to sexual harassment of migrants and refugees in Australia, like Susan, as part of a study in partnership with women's advocacy bodies Harmony Alliance and the National Women’s Alliance, and funded by ANROWS, a research body that studies the impacts of violence against women and their children.
“Migrant and refugee women remain largely overshadowed in major national studies and national commitments to ending sexual harassment in the workplace,” lead author Associate Professor Marie Segrave says.
Professor Segrave says around 1,000 responses had been received to an so far, and it is hoped more would be lodged this week before the survey closes at midnight on Friday.
The harassment Susan has experienced has varied. Some of the men have tried to touch her leg or another part of her body while she was massaging them, she says. When she was working in Sydney, it often happened daily.
"They try to touch the body, when you are not aware.
"They might try and touch you, or they might try and talk to you and ask ... make suggestive comments."
They try to touch the body, when you are not aware.Susan, Massage Therapist
Some clients try to "bargain" a price for what they want, others will find an excuse to shift the modesty towels covering them and "open their body" to her.
Over the years she has become experienced at identifying which customers might want something extra. One potential red flag is if a man asks for a full-body massage.
"My experience, when the guy asking about full body, I have aware of what is meaning," she says.
Susan is a specialist in warm stone massage. Source: Getty / Yuri Arcurs
But despite advertising as a private health fund accredited specialist in Thai traditional massage, as well as remedial, deep tissue and warm stone massage, she says she still gets calls or text messages at least a few times a week inquiring about 'happy endings'.
She provides a firm but polite rejection, asking the men to respect her, and she will warn her staff if she identifies a client they may need to be wary of. If a client makes advances in the massage room, she moves away from them and tells staff if they find themselves in the same situation they should leave the room.
Susan says in her experience it was often younger staff who were less experienced and didn't speak English well, who were targeted for harassment "because they don't know how to complain".
"When I was younger, we just frightening, I used to be cry before."
Association of Massage Therapists chief executive officer Rebecca Barnett says it would be hard to find any massage therapists in Australia, including men, who hadn't been asked for sexual services at some point in their career, but believes the behaviour is especially targeted at women from Asian backgrounds.
"Asian therapists experience a lot of harassment," she says. "Thai therapists particularly experience harassment because it's just virtually assumed that Thai massage must have a sexual element to it.
"There is absolutely a racialised element to it."
There is absolutely a racialised element to it.Rebecca Barnett, Association of Massage Therapists
Professor Segrave agrees.
"[Susan's] experiences very much sit at the intersection of both sexual harassment but also what I presume are racialised stereotypes and expectations," she says.
Thailand is a 'sex tourism' hub where sex work is practised openly despite being illegal. It's estimated the industry contributes about $8 billion a year to the country's economy.
Ms Barnett says she too has been asked for a 'happy ending' while working as a massage therapist but had not experienced being touched like Susan describes.
"To me, that sounds like a real power imbalance thing.
"The kind of harassment that I would have received was more along the lines of an invitation rather than an assumption that it was okay to do that kind of stuff."
There are more than 18,000 massage therapists working in Australia, according to the National Skills Commission's Labour Market Insights. About 46 per cent of massage therapists are born overseas, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from 2016 show. About 31 per cent are from Asian countries including around 12 per cent from south-east Asia.
One of the additional problems, Susan says, is that some massage parlours in Australia also function as brothels.
"Some people compare our work with the brothel," she says. "Some people have attitude towards Thai massage as sexual workers."
"It make the guy ... try to bargain with any type of Asian or any type of massage."
A flashing sign spruiks massage for sale Source: SBS News / SBS Thai
Specific rules apply to massage parlours that offer sexual services depending on the location. In Sydney, they are legal but must be classified in the same category as brothels, according to Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia. Any sexual act must be consensual.
Ms Barnett says even businesses proactively advertising their professional qualifications to indicate they did not provide sexual services could still get requests for sexual services as there was a degree of "chancing behaviour" from some people.
"I think there might be a bit of thrill about trying to lure qualified therapists into providing a sexual service, and that so that does lead to harassment actually during the treatment on the table."
Visa insecurity
Professor Segrave says precarious employment, such as working unlawfully because a visa doesn't allow people to work, or to work for such long hours, could contribute to the risk of sexual harassment.
Susan says she knows of women without permanent visas in Australia who had been pressured to provide sexual services in order to keep their jobs and pay their bills.
In the case of massage businesses, Professor Segrave says the client may also feel they have more power because they are a paying customer.
"It's particularly difficult in the context of a client because that's a different kind of relationship compared to, for example, in a big workplace, where there might be potentially a good HR system that might allow you to trigger some kind of intervention around behaviours."
Not all allegations are reported to managers and not all businesses report incidents to police.
"So it's quite complicated because we're kind of caught without any clear system to engage people, respond to it, in a way that helps the business ... so it's important to draw attention to," Professor Segrave says.
ANROWS chief executive officer Padma Raman says the study of migrant and refugee women will provide evidence to governments, employers and industry groups.
“We know these groups of women experience high levels of sexual harassment, and this research will help us develop more effective and culturally safe strategies to prevent and respond to it."
If you or anyone at your workplace is in immediate danger, call 000.
1800RESPECT provides counselling services to anyone who has experienced sexual assault or sexual harassment on 1800 737 732 or via
The Australian Human Rights Commission provides information about reporting sexual harassment in the workplace for and .
Would you like to share your story with SBS News? Email yourstory@sbs.com.au
