As the economic hub of South Africa, Johannesburg attracts cross-border migrants in search
of improved livelihoods; over half the population of some of its inner-city suburbs are made
up of cross border migrants. Globally as well as locally, foreigners have been blamed for the
spread of diseases such as HIV. As a result, they have suffered challenges in accessing public
healthcare, particularly antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV. Studies have shown that
despite these challenges - foreigners experienced better ART outcomes than nationals. There
is a need to explore the ways in which cross border migrants use to access and to stay on
treatment, given the wide-range of challenges that they face during their stay in
Johannesburg. Semi-structured interviews with five nurses and ten cross-border migrants
currently receiving ART, along with non-participant observations, were used to collect data
from two public clinics in inner-city Johannesburg. Analysis suggests that the family network
in the country of origin remains critical, as cross border migrants are not disclosing their
status in the city in which they live, but do so to their families in their countries of origin.
Data shows that when it comes to accessing and staying on treatment, cross-border migrants
go to the clinic every month as do nationals; ask for more treatment from nurses when going
home temporarily; eat healthily; but hide when taking medication, and negotiate
confidentiality and trust within their families in countries of origin. Some are found to access
treatment in their countries of origin while staying in Johannesburg. Despite the lack of social
networks in the inner city, this data suggests that cross-border migrants are successful in
accessing and continuing with ART. There is need for future research to look at social
networks for internal migrants, so as to compare results.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/13182 |
| Date | 03 October 2013 |
| Creators | Hwati, Roseline |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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