Seattle’s Massage Workers Demand Safety and Solidarity—Not Stigma

“It was not looked at with shame, but with pride by the anti-Chinese vigilantes and the state — so much so that it had a name: the Tacoma method,” said J.M. Wong, a member of the Massage Parlor Organizing Project (MPOP), during a press conference in late May.

Ahead of the summer 2026 World Cup, police raided more than 50 Asian massage parlors in the Seattle area, costing workers their jobs and homes. The workers and their advocates at MPOP responded by demanding an end to the raids and emphasizing the need for a state licensing path that recognizes their cultural expertise. 

The press conference, held outside the Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, was part of MPOP’s ongoing Safety Not Stigma campaign. ​“Anti-Asian stigmatization and racism is still here with us today,” Wong said. ​“Today’s model chases after immigrant women and workers in the name of stamping out trafficking and rescuing the very people they want to silence and exclude from the city’s future.” 

The raids came as Seattle prepared to host six World Cup matches in June and July — and news of increasingly violent ICE raids on immigrant communities continued to spread throughout the country. Police and fire departments in King and Pierce counties raided the parlors as part of a ​“cross-agency anti-trafficking initiative”; but in the eyes of these workers, and their advocates, they weren’t being ​“saved”; they were being punished. 

“Police and fire tell us in the media that these women were victims who needed to be rescued,” Wong said. ​“But this is not what we heard from the workers who were in distress outside their places of work, afraid to get their belongings.” 

As a result of the raids, many workers lost their livelihoods and their housing in one fell swoop. 

In response to the raids, MPOP and its allies in the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) publicly called for a moratorium on anti-Asian police raids of King County massage parlors. The Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council — the county’s central labor organization — passed a historic resolution in support of the workers.

The vote marked ​“the first time a resolution has passed supporting an active campaign pushed by Asian massage workers (Safety Not Stigma), instead of memorializing those lost to police or white supremacist violence,” according to an MPOP press release.

The increased frequency of police and ICE raids and the dramatic uptick in anti-immigrant rhetoric from the political class have contrived to make these workers’ jobs even harder. Many immigrant massage workers, especially those who speak little or no English, struggle with the licensing process. Applicants must complete 625 hours of training at a state board approved massage school, for which tuition varies wildly, and in many said schools, training materials are only offered in English or Spanish. MPOP says workers regularly spend thousands of dollars and months of training at schools whose programs turn out not to qualify for licensure, forcing them to start over. ​“Some of us have experienced this multiple times,” said an MPOP speaker at the press conference. Fraud in the massage-school industry is well documented: A 2021 USA Today investigation identified two dozen schools with alleged ties to fraud or prostitution, including operators accused of selling fake credentials. In 2012, lawmakers removed language accommodations from the state’s massage and reflexology licensing framework that would have provided alternatives for non-English speakers.

Since the licensing framework only recognizes state-approved institutions, it fails to account for previous work experience or training acquired in traditional Chinese medicine and other cultural practices. MPOP is calling on the city and state to create an alternative licensing pathway for Asian massage workers by establishing a ​“cultural bodywork” category. ​“The industry is so stigmatized by the government officials that they just deem all the professional work you do, especially the Chinese medicine part, not proper massage,” Sally told me in Mandarin, while an MPOP staffer translated. She’s a Chinese-born massage worker who has lived and worked in Seattle’s Pike Place neighborhood since 2013. In her view, the current licensing system only accepts ​“Westernized medical massage.”

It’s a catch-22: It’s extremely difficult to acquire a license, but without one, workers are at risk of arrest, and those with complex immigration statuses are in further danger of detainment or deportation. This climate of fear has also emboldened bad actors to take advantage of these vulnerable workers: Some customers have threatened to report workers to the police or ICE to avoid paying, have sexually harassed workers or even robbed them. ​“Because workers fear arrest and deportation,” said an MPOP spokesperson, ​“they will not call the police or report incidents of violence or exploitation within their workplace.” Trapped in a vicious cycle by the current system, there is little workers can do right now to defend themselves. But they’re trying to change that.

Sally (who asked to use a pseudonym for her safety and privacy) originally moved to the Seattle area in 2011 with her American husband, leaving behind a career managing a shopping mall in her home province, Sichuan. When he died of cancer in 2013, she scrambled to find whatever work she could. A friend recommended she look into the massage business. ​“I actually didn’t do massage back in China; in China I was the one receiving the massage!” she said. ​“But at the time I did feel like, Oh, this is so relaxing for me, this is a helpful kind of work.”

Over the next fifteen years, Sally learned from coworkers in the massage field, perfected her technique and now sees herself as almost a mother to many of her customers. She listens to their problems, checks in on their health and recommends exercises for them to do at home. ​“We provide services for both really rich engineers and also the low-income customers who really need the massage to relieve their muscle pain,” she said. ​“I have a lot of customers who are doing heavy lifting work, and they can’t afford really expensive medical massages or don’t have health insurance in that way. … This is really important care labor.”

Now Sally is fighting alongside MPOP to break down barriers preventing other immigrants from safely working in the industry and to end the stigma against Asian massage workers. She is especially disappointed in the lack of respect she feels she and her coworkers receive from the government, the media and those who want to ​“rescue” them. Her stern recommendation for them: ​“If you really want to talk about trafficking, go listen to the real workers who are in this industry, instead of believing some biased news.” That’s what MPOP and APALA are doing, and that’s why massage workers like Sally are involved in their collective push for reform. MPOP was formed in the wake of the 2018 police raids on Asian massage parlors in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle. It has since grown into a powerful resource for legislative and community organizing. Its members are Asian immigrant workers who are often excluded by the dominant labor movement and criminalized under existing laws.

In a region with such a deep and ugly history of anti-Asian violence, righting these historic wrongs will take action, not just words. ​“Once again, we see this region’s legislators, industry bodies, neighborhood groups, the city, and the country’s police and safety systems attack the most vulnerable Chinese workers in our communities under the guise of stamping out social ills and bad business that undercut struggling professionals,” J.M. Wong said during the May press conference. Since lawmakers and the powers that be have continually failed them in favor of top-down ​“anti-trafficking” initiatives, these workers are determined to make it happen for themselves.

“The government doesn’t listen to us migrant workers,” said a Seattle massage worker who spoke during the press conference. ​“They speak for us and make laws based on stereotypes and biased views of Asian women. What is truly good for us? We need to be able to report wage theft and violence without fear of being criminalized or deported. We need translators, lawyers, doctors and affordable housing. If police raids and shop searches only make us poor and more silent, then they are not helping us.”

Safety, not stigma, is both the demand and the goal. Massage workers ​“are really a part of this society,” Sally said. ​“We’re contributing, we’re also taxpayers, so just give us enough respect and value our work.”