Rethinking Postmigration HIV Vulnerability Through Migrant Networks and Whiteness: Race‐Conscious Conversations With Newly Arrived Asian‐Born Gay Migrants in Australia

Migrants do not only acquire HIV in their home countries; a significant proportion acquire HIV postmigration. Newly arrived Asian-born gay migrants in Australia have been identified as having low HIV risk but still being vulnerable to HIV. In this paper, we qualitatively examine their postmigration HIV vulnerability embedded within migrant networks, drawing from race-conscious conversations with 11 newly arrived Asian-born gay migrants in Queensland. The formation, composition and power dynamic in their migrant networks reveal the centrality of Whiteness, as a dominant cultural capital rooted in Western European colonisation, in shaping their postmigration HIV vulnerability. Whiteness creates situations where sexual violence and HIV transmission are likely to occur. But it also reduces HIV risk by making access to and understanding of local sexual health information and services desirable. We call for Australia's sexual health sector to dismantle Whiteness as a hegemony through several multifaceted strategies.