The project relied on a multi-method qualitative methodology including:
• an online survey both in English and Italian. It included 55 questions of different types (multiple choice; Likert scale; open). The questions covered multiple issues concerning the life choices and perspectives of the respondents, thus providing a fully rounded perspective on the relation between histories of migration, HIV, place and everyday life;
• 59 biographic interviews with gay men living with HIV in England and Italy using the biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM). This method allows the exploration of a multiplicity of issues, thus favouring a complex analysis of social processes (as in the case of migration of gay men living with HIV);
• 12 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (service providers, representatives of groups of people living with HIV, medical practitioners or nurses, policy makers);
• a Forum Theatre (FT) workshop (held in Bologna in February 2019), attended by 6 gay men living with HIV and conducted by two experts in FT techniques. In the workshop personal stories of oppression and violence were acted out by the participants themselves who had the possibility to explore strategies for action by replacing the protagonist of the scene. Data from the workshop were analyzed following thematic analysis, the results of which were compared (and/or contrasted) with the results of the interviews;
• critical discourse analysis of archival documents at the ‘Centro di Documentazione Flavia Madaschi’ located within the LGBTI Center ‘Il Cassero’ in Bologna, the LGBT Foundation’s archive at Manchester Central Library and the HIV/AIDS Testimonies archive at the British Library in London. In Bologna the analysis concerned material on gay men and HIV published on gay press and main national newspapers and magazines between the 1980s and 2008 [ca 250 documents analyzed]. In London and Manchester ca300 documents were analyzed (national press and gay press articles on HIV already selected in the LGBT Foundation’s archive; 30 interviews with people living with HIV recorded between 1995 and 2000 and then followed up between 2005 and 2008 in the HIV/AIDS Testimonies archive).
The main findings from the analysis of the collected data are the following:
• Felt stigma and the ‘second closet’ are still persistent in both countries.
• The main hypothesis of the project, i.e. migration representing a widespread response to reinvent one’s own life after testing positive to HIV, is confirmed by the results of the survey.
• Love, friendship and the presence of a vibrant gay community seem to be the main factors pushing researching participants to remain in the place they lived to.
• Free access to healthcare played a central role when deciding where to move to for the greatest majority of the interviewees.
• The legacy of stigmatizing public discourse around HIV/AIDS from the 1980s and the 1990s still persists, affecting also younger generations.
• Italian participants living in England describe dynamics of sexual racialization from the part of British men very similar to the dynamics narrated by non-White participants living in Italy.
• Participants in vulnerable situations (refugees; asylum seekers; people with further disabilities; welfare benefit recipients) experience distress, anxiety and other mental health issues. In their narratives, they frame these as the negative consequences of the action of State institutions.
• The use of recreational drugs for sex is widespread among the interviewees. The main reasons associated with the use of recreational drugs are enhanced sexual pleasure and sociability.
