ABSTRACT
Studies of migration in a number of developing countries have found that people who are mobile are often likely to be at higher risk of HIV infection than those who do not move, largely because mobility may be associated with risky sexual behaviours (Lurie et al. 2003; Ondimu 2005; UN 2005; Chinaglia et al. 2008). Several factors have been proposed to explain the link between mobility and sexual risk, such as the fact that people tend to migrate at ages when they are most sexually active (UN 2005), separation of couples and demand for commercial sex (Pison et al. 1993), cultural changes (Decosas et al. 1995), socioeconomic and living conditions (Flournoy and Yen 2004; Hallman 2004), and modifications of gender-based power relations (Gupta and Weiss 1993; Mason 1994; Fapohunda and Rutenberg 1999; Blanc 2001). This chapter addresses some of the above, with a special emphasis on gender
norms, the widespread patterns of behaviour that are generally tolerated or accepted as proper, reinforced by others, and sometimes quite hard for individuals to resist (Tibandebage and Mackintosh 2002). After describing the living and working conditions of migrant workers on tea plantations in the Kericho district of Kenya, I discuss the workers’ HIV-related knowledge and behaviours. I show how sexual risk takes place as a function of factors operating at individual, household and community levels, and how gender imbalances influence migration to work away from one’s home community, living and working conditions at destination, and sexual risk behaviours. The chapter is based on findings from a study in which, following pre-
liminary focus group discussions, a household survey was carried out amongst a random 10 per cent sample of male and female workers on six of Kericho’s 27 tea estates. A standard Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Beliefs questionnaire was administered in face-to-face interviews with a total of 630 workers. In a third phase of the study sexual and sexually transmitted infection/HIV-related behaviour, perceptions, and experiences were explored in 60 in-depth interviews with a broad range of sexually active workers. The interview format in this phase allowed extensive rapport to build, permitting exploration of complex, ambiguous and potentially sensitive material (Ondimu 2005).
