Hi Lux,

A lot of anti-prostitution types cite problems in the Netherlands as "proof" that legalization is unviable.  The issue there, evidently, isn't that prostitution is legal or that sex workers are unionized but that only Dutch citizens are allowed to practice legally.  The upshot is that there's an extensive (and to some degree voluntarily and involuntarily trafficked) network of undocumented sex workers who, because of their undocumented status, face effectively the same legal barriers faced by subsistance/street sex workers in the U.S: no rights, no recourse, often forced to compromise on issues of personal safety, doubly scorned for being illegals, and facing deportation (as opposed to incarceration here.)

At any rate, I've been told by people familiar with issues over there that the effective two-tier legal/illegal system dramatically complicates the picture.