This paper focuses on Tajik male migrant workers in Moscow and seeks to address the global public health problem of HIV prevention amongst male migrant workers. To develop feasible and effective preventive interventions for reducing HIV risk behaviors amongst Tajik male migrant workers in Moscow, this study aimed to characterize their HIV/AIDS risk and protective knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as key contextual factors that would likely impede or facilitate a preventive intervention. This was a collaborative multi-sited ethnography in Moscow that included minimally structured interviews with 16 participants and focus group discussions with an additional 14 participants. The results suggest that many Tajik male migrant workers in Moscow are having unprotected sex with commercial sex workers. Although some of the migrants have basic knowledge about HIV, the migrants' ability to protect themselves from acquiring HIV is compromised by harsh living and working conditions as a consequence of being unprotected by law in Russia. To respond to HIV/AIDS risks amongst Tajik male migrant workers in Moscow, preventive interventions must be developed that respond to their sense of being unprotected in the midst of harsh living and working conditions and that draw upon existing sources of religious, community, and family support. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.

Tajikistan Migrants HIV/AIDS prevention Ethnography

information processing Vulnerable Populations Moscow HIV Infections sexual behavior Human immunodeficiency virus infection community care human work environment risk assessment priority journal Marital Status Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome housing social support religion Unsafe Sex attitude to illness migrant worker Humans family Interviews as Topic male ethnography clinical article high risk population prostitution medical information Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Article feasibility study high risk behavior Risk-Taking awareness intervention study adult infection risk Prejudice structured interview occupational health Transients and Migrants Anthropology, Cultural social class risk reduction health hazard acquired immune deficiency syndrome Tajikistan clinical effectiveness Russian Federation public health