Segregation of Sexual Networks and Racially-Based Prevention Practices among Sub-Saharan African Migrants Living in France

Elise Marsicano, Paris XI, CESP-INSERM
Nathalie Lydié, Institut National de Prévention et d'Education pour la Santé (INPES)

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa bear a disproportionate burden of HIV/aids infections in Europe with a growing proportion acquiring HIV after migration. To give an insight into the epidemic dynamic in these populations, we describe their sexual networks and examine how preventive practices are organised within specific sexual networks. Analyses are based on a French survey carried out on 1874 individuals born in sub-Saharan Africa, aged 18-49 and living in Paris and its surroundings. Our analyses provide evidence of the existence of African sexual networks, over and beyond national origin. This intra-African segregation of sexual networks is likely to be favoured by the living conditions of these migrants. It probably contributes to the spread of the epidemic amongst these migrants. Moreover, racially based perceptions seem to produce a specific attitude toward prevention practices as shown by the higher condom use among women with a partner born outside sub-Saharan Africa.