Culture, Health and Sexuality
Volume 13, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 513-528

Contexts of risk and networks of protection: NYC West Indian immigrants' perceptions of migration and vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (Article)

Hoffman S.* , Higgins J.A. , Beckford-Jarrett S.T. , Augenbraun M. , Bylander K.E. , Mantell J.E. , Wilson T.E.
  • a HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, New York, United States, Department of Epidemiology, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, United States
  • b Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, United States
  • c National HIV/STI Prevention and Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Kingston, Jamaica
  • d Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, United States, Department of Community Health Sciences: Graduate Program in Public Health, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, United States
  • e New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, United States
  • f HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, New York, United States
  • g Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, United States

Abstract

To generate insights into how migration shapes sexual risk and protection, we interviewed 36 female and 20 male West Indian immigrants attending a public sexually transmitted disease clinic in Brooklyn, New York, between 2004 and 2005. Migration theory suggests that shifts in sexual partnership patterns, bi-directional travel and changes in sexual norms may alter risk. We found evidence of sexual mixing across ethnic groups: a large proportion of participants' partners were not born in the West Indies, despite what is expected among first generation immigrants. Recent travel 'home', another potential source of risk, was uncommon. In open-ended interviews, two themes around sexual and social networks emerged. First, immigrants believed that access to wider, more anonymous sexual networks in New York City (NYC) and the weakening of social controls that limit multiple partnerships (especially for women) promoted greater risk. Second, immigrants experienced greater opportunities for protection in NYC, both through exposure to safer sex messages and availability of condoms. Reported changes in their own condom use, however, were not attributed to migration. West Indian immigrants' risk in NYC may be driven by access to wider sexual networks but failure to alter reliance on 'networks of knowledge' for protection. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Author Keywords

sexual health Migration Caribbean Sexual networks West Indian HIV/STD

Index Keywords

West Indies psychological aspect methodology Safe Sex human risk assessment sexuality statistics condom Condoms social support ethnology qualitative research sexually transmitted disease Sexually Transmitted Diseases United States Young Adult Humans Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants female risk factor Risk Factors Article awareness adult migration New York City Utilization Review Caribbean Islands
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-79953275764&doi=10.1080%2f13691058.2011.562304&partnerID=40&md5=f2f4dea1401c556780495d5ef084373a
DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2011.562304
ISSN: 13691058
Cited by: 14
Original Language: English