As the labor market goes global, immigrant workers are becoming important around the world. However, little research has focused on the characteristics of their sex behaviors. This study examines foreign employees in Korea in order to investigate their understanding of HIV and sexual risk behaviors. The sample (N = 547) was formed from migrant workers in the industrial complex in Ansan district, which depends highly on foreigners as its labor source. Logistic regression, analysis revealed that 36.0% of the respondents were engaged in more than one sexual risk behavior. Those who knew someone infected with HIV (OR = 2.583) and Thai respondents (OR = 3.007) showed high sexual risk behaviors, while married (OR = 0.182) and Korean Chinese (OR = 0.280) workers showed low sexual risk behaviors. Those who had a wealth of knowledge about HIV took a less discriminatory position against the person who had infected them, but this had no statistical effects over the sexual risk behaviors. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.

Immigrant groups HIV knowledge South Korea Sexual risk behavior Respondent-driven sampling

South Korea educational status immigrant comprehension sexual behavior Human immunodeficiency virus infection human ethnic group knowledge marriage income social status homosexuality attitude male female prostitution medical information Article high risk behavior major clinical study adult acquired immune deficiency syndrome