摘要：HIV/AIDs risk among migrant workers is often examined through individual determinants with limited consideration of social context. We used data from systematic ethnographic observations, structured interviews (n = 50), and life history interviews (n = 10) to examine the relationship between loneliness and HIV/AIDS risk for recently arrived (within the last 3 years) male Mexican migrant workers in New York City. Higher levels of loneliness were strongly associated with frequency of sexual risk behavior ( r = 0.64; P = .008). From our ethnographic observations, we found that loneliness was a dominant element in workers' migration experience and that 2 different kinds of social spaces served as supportive environments for dealing with loneliness: bars or dance clubs and Catholic churches. Loneliness should be addressed as a critical factor in reducing HIV/AIDS risk among Mexican male migrant workers. Male Mexican migrant workers in the United States are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. Although currently no surveillance mechanisms accurately measure the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS for Latino male migrant workers, 1 , 2 such men typically have extremely low-income backgrounds and low levels of formal education (factors well-known in the research literature to increase the likelihood of HIV infection). 3 , 4 Male Mexican migrant workers in the United States are at high risk of contracting HIV compared with their counterparts who remain in Mexico. 5 Studies suggest that Mexican migrant workers have low perceptions of HIV/AIDS risk, have high levels of stigma associated with talking about sexual activity or about HIV/AIDS, demonstrate a general lack of knowledge on how to use condoms properly, and use condoms inconsistently, both with sexual partners in the United States and with their wives and partners in Mexico. 5 – 11 Furthermore, Organista et al. found in their study of Mexican migrant workers that 82% of the single men and 27% of the married men in their sample reported multiple sexual partners during the previous year. Although condom use in their sample was strongly predicted by carrying condoms, more than two thirds of their sample never, or almost never, carried condoms. 12 Mexican migrant workers in cities such as New York live in a context of extreme social inequality that facilitates HIV/AIDS risk. 13 This inequality is facilitated by their lack of legal rights, largely undocumented status, racial discrimination by members of other ethnic groups, limited access to health care or appropriate sexually transmitted disease prevention and early treatment services, and class discrimination. 8 , 14 – 17 Recent data suggest that among recently arrived Mexican migrant workers (within the last 3 years), having sexual intercourse in the “new” social context seems to be associated with coping with the initial loneliness of the labor migration experience. 8 , 13 , 18 , 19 To extend this earlier work on loneliness as a sexual risk factor, we conducted an ethnographic study to qualitatively and quantitatively examine the association between loneliness and sexual risk among Mexican migrant men in New York City. We sought to describe the contextual factors that shape the experiences of loneliness and HIV sexual risk behavior for men in the study.
