Who is a mobile man 'at risk'? Masculinity, work-related mobility, and HIV-related risks in Uganda and South Africa

Men who move for work (e.g., taxi drivers, fishermen, labourers) are often described as a homogeneous group at equal risk of HIV acquisition. This framing often masks important differences between men. Using data from rapid ethnographic assessments and a baseline survey in two settings in South Africa and one in Uganda, we examine how sexual risk- taking among men who travel frequently for work is shaped by mobility. We describe the different mobility patterns of men who are engaged in fishing, driving taxis and trucks and motorcycle-taxi riders, showing how these patterns interacted with reputational and respectable masculinities to shape sexual risk. The availability of alcohol and sex workers while away from home offered opportunities for engaging in opportunistic sex, particularly among younger mobile men drawn to building their reputation as a sexually-active man. Other factors such as older age, relationship status, fatherhood, time in the place and previous risky behaviours, shaped the enactment of respectable masculinities, especially among the older men. These findings illustrate that the link between HIV risk and mobility is understood better when looking at the different interacting factors at play in different contexts. The same mobile men may enact different forms of masculinity depending on their relationships status, social obligations and past experiences with risk, resulting in different exposures to HIV risk. Intervention approaches which target men who are mobile for work need to be tailored to address the different factors which affect risk-taking at different times in mobile men's lives.