Positively Belonging in Peru?: Venezuelan Migrants with HIV/AIDS at the intersections of Pharmaceutical Citizenship, Biosocialities, Race and Biomedicine.

Background: Recent years have seen an unprecedented influx of Venezuelan-migrants across Latin-America, with one million arriving to Peru. Of these, approximately 1,700 are living-with-HIV, and owing to long-running shortages of medicine and care in Venezuela, the need for treatment is urgent. In order to access this, migrants must apply for citizenship and communicate with Peruvian interlocutors - a necessity that places them in a unique position for 'belonging' that is unavailable to other migrants. Furthermore, it must be considered that Venezuela is a Caribbean country and the Peruvian-medical-system is troubled by xenophobia and racism; the influences that this may have on receipt of Anti-retroviral-treatment and migrant assimilation are important to address. My Approach: I will study this problem through long-term ethnographic-fieldwork with HIV-positive Venezuelan-migrants, stakeholders, and Peruvian interlocutors in Lima,Peru. Expected Impact: This study will lead to policy recommendations and public-engagement-work that reduce migrant/HIV-stigma and encourages better-access to urgently-needed treatments.