Innate Health Threat Among a Visibly Hidden Immigrant Group: A Formative Field Data Analysis for HIV/AIDS Prevention Among Zimbabwean Workers in Botswana

Abstract

As a result of the collapse of the national economy and political instability, Zimbabwe has experienced a diaspora in recent years. Although Zimbabweans are now the largest immigrant group in most sub-Saharan countries, Zimbabwean immigrants are a mostly illegal and socioeconomically marginalized population. This study explores the lives of Zimbabwean workers in Botswana from a health communication perspective and provides suggestions for accelerating the diffusion of HIV/AIDS prevention information and practices among the target population. In particular, this ethnographic report portrays how the Zimbabwean workers in Botswana make sense of their surroundings and perceive information on HIV/AIDS prevention and other public health risks. Field data analysis highlights several communication features among the immigrants, including reliance on interpersonal communication, high rate of mobile phone adoption, inaccurate public awareness on HIV/AIDS and prevention messages, and stagnated communication with health care services. By connecting Dervin's sensemaking theory to Roger's diffusion of innovations theory, the suggestions from this study can be applied to design HIV/AIDS prevention interventions for the immigrants and socioeconomically marginalized groups.

Applying the communication theory of Diffusion of Innovations to economic sciences: a response to the ‘Using gossips to spread information’ experiments conducted by the 2019 Nobel Laureates

“…Opinion leaders constitute a small proportion (often about 5%) of all potential adopters. They do not necessarily occupy higher status in organizations or communities; rather they are sought out for their trustworthiness, expertise, and accessibility to those seeking advice or a social model example (Dearing & Cox, 2018;Dearing & Singhal, 2006;Kee et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2013). Approaches to spread innovations by harnessing opinion leaders, instead of randomly selected individuals, have proven effective in reducing uncertainty and cost in a diffusion process and routinizing the adoption sustainably (Greenhalgh et al, 2004).…”