Open Access“Who are You and What are You Doing Here?”: Social Capital and Barriers to Movement along the HIV Care Cascade among Tajikistani Migrants with HIV to Russia
Author(s) -
Daniel J. Bromberg,
Mary M Tate,
Arash Alaei,
Julia Rozanova,
Saifuddin Karimov,
Dilshod Saidi,
Kamiar Alaei,
Frederick L. Altice
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
aids and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.994
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1573-3254
pISSN - 1090-7165
DOI - 10.1007/s10461-021-03359-w
Subject(s) - health psychology , social capital , public health , health care , harm reduction , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , thematic analysis , harm , political science , economic growth , sociology , qualitative research , medicine , nursing , family medicine , economics , law , social science
Tajikistani migrants who work in Russia and acquire HIV seldom receive HIV treatment while in Russia. Barriers to engagement in the HIV care cascade were identified from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with purposefully sampled Tajikistani migrants (n = 34) with HIV who had returned from Russia. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, drawing from Putnam's theory of social capital, showing how bridging and bonding social capital relate to poor engagement in HIV care. We identified three barriers to Tajikistani migrants' movement through the HIV care cascade: (1) Russia's migration ban on people with HIV interrupts social capital accumulation and prevents access to HIV treatment within Russia; (2) mistrust of authority figures, including healthcare providers, leads to avoiding treatment and harm-reduction services upon their return to Tajikistan; and (3) because of pervasive discrimination, Tajikistani migrants form weak social ties while in Russia, which exacerbates risk, including with Russian citizens, and deters engagement with HIV care. Deploying a treatment as prevention strategy and abolishing Russia's ban on people with HIV would improve both individual and public health.