Risk amplification: HIV in migrant communities

Type Journal Article - Development Southern Africa
Title Risk amplification: HIV in migrant communities
Author(s)
Volume 24
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2007
Page numbers 205-223
URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03768350601166080
Abstract
The demography of both urban and rural South Africa is shaped by migration, with three unique patterns: labour-sending, labour-receiving and rural areas. This article explores the relationship between HIV risk and migration in South Africa. It identifies the urban informal settlements common in labour-receiving areas as key magnifiers of HIV risk, increasing the vulnerability of migrant workers in these townships. It examines the urban informal settlement, a unique social environment with distinctly high-risk behaviour dynamics, as a focal determinant of HIV. It pro- poses this framework as an extension of the migration – HIV dialectic beyond the traditionally uni- dimensional approach, to encompass a more contextualised discussion. This methodology, which uses the environment as an entry point to understanding behaviour and emphasises the importance of addressing the HIV–migration issue within a broader development perspective, has important implications for HIV programming in South Africa.

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