Participants’ quotations
| Personal health determinants | Socioeconomic situation in the country of origin and migration process | “When I was in my country…only my husband worked…when I was pregnant…he died….so I had no help….no money… I wanted to leave my country…” (Osas) |
| “…here is better than my country. In the country there is not job, not job. One day, one day… you can get something for doing… so you can give money…”(Jennifer) | ||
| “Well, in my country I did not go to school. If I studied in my country…like college, and…finishing secondary school … here I'm going to have very good life, much easy to find work. But I not have study, cannot read, only a little…in my country, if you have no money cannot go to school…”(Happy) | ||
| “we do it because someone brought us here”; “we need to pay that person”; “so, you must do it, because the money they ask us to pay is big money” (Anita) | ||
| “… Well… my friend was in Europe… she persuaded me to come… she arrived home with lots of money, she built a house…a car…she said that in Europe plenty…I sold everything I had from working and…look what I found here.” (Silvia). | ||
| Situation in the host country and personal expectations | “…No, in this place, I cannot rent a flat…because of the money… I have to take a room for somebody…”(Jennifer) | |
| “Of course, when I have my residence, I look for job, because I have lots of courses, diplomas, and look for job”. (Mònica) | ||
| Previous experience in Nigeria and Nigerian opinion on sex work | “My country, I did sewing in my country”. (Happy) | |
| “In my country I didn't do it; I didn't working before…. My country…. I helped my mother… to sell in the market” (Mònica) | ||
| “…my life have changed a lot, big time…When I was in my country I was going to the school, and don't do this kind of job. I don't sleep with men because of the money, but coming to Europe has changed lot time, big time…” (Anita) | ||
| “mmm… yes, because here is more open, in my country… it exists but… it is like secret… you understand me? Here is like a trade… not in my country… if you are like this… people do not respect you. But here it is your job…you can do as you please…” (Silvia) | ||
| “…in my country…if some people work in a hotel, but here you can work in a hotel and can work in the street…” (Mònica) | ||
| “I do not fuck behind, in my country we do not talk about it… there man with woman, woman with man, but not woman with woman, man with man, but it is never mentioned…” (Happy) | ||
| Sexual practices with partners | “No, with my boyfriend I don't use protection.” (Anita) | |
| “If I have boyfriend… before you use the skin with him… I said let first go for test, so if we are clean…then you can use the skin together… Only visit not, If say not, we use condom for act because I don't know if are sickness…” (Jennifer) | ||
| “…with my partner I fuck always without condom” (Joy) | ||
| Occupational determinants | Knowledge STI/HIV/AIDS | “AIDS and cancer are disease, disease…. For…me…AIDS worse”. (Joy) |
| “HIV cannot be cured. Syphilis and gonorrhoea yes.” (Happy) | ||
| “Diseases, infections through the sex, you can take infections through the sex…, through the toilets and through… maybe… the blood…” (Jennifer) | ||
| “When…you fuck, no rubber, you get AIDS. When you also suck you get disease, also when you have dirty hands and you touch your… … sex… you also get disease and when you suck natural you also catch the disease.” (Joy) | ||
| Perception of risk of contracting STI/HIV/AIDS | “[yaa], there are a lot of risk in this job, very, very…a lot of risk and most people don't know… And…just people they have these diseases they don't tell you and still up working.” (Anita) | |
| “This work it's very dangerous, it's not good… Because maybe they need money… or not job, maybe they are looking for job… still can let me go for that… it's very dangerous, you have to protect yourself…” (Jennifer) | ||
| “…there is also other people… that are not my partner… then you have to use the condom with your partner and elsewhere. Then… better for him and you.” (Silvia) | ||
| “Mmmm… you know in the street I use condom, you have to be careful so that the condom don't blow… yes…” (Jennifer) | ||
| “Yes, yes… If works in the street or in bed with other sometimes they don't know many other girls fear going to hospital.” (Osas) | ||
| Preventive behaviour | “Yes… with condom… you have to make with condom … otherwise… no… business…”. (Silvia) | |
| “First shower and when enter flat, go to bathroom to shower and once a week I wash in a…I buy in [mentions supermarket]…one liquid.” (Osas) | ||
| “Yes, if it's itchy… you can put… antibiotics… to prevent also … Yes, yes… gels also…”. (Silvia) | ||
| “I use Kleenex in the streets, I use Kleenex…to clean the condom, to clean myself, maybe for clean, when I finish to use condom if there are not water to wash yourself, ….maybe in the weekend, you can use hot water… hot water…with “roc”, you take a little and put it in hot water…and with towel… and you sit in the bucket and you, cover yourself with towel… you sit over the heat…the vapour… 10 or 15 minutes with hot water … you clean… and everything gets out” (Mònica) | ||
| “I… drink whiskey … don't know….I think it happens, it makes me vomit, I find it disgusting… yes disgusting… I have taken ampicillin, all to clean, and I have taken a liquid to clean … it is called… “ditoy”, it is for the shower, also my vagina… it contains gas…” (Mònica) | ||
| Alcohol and drugs use g | “No, I don't take drugs.” (Anita) | |
| “In my family never woman can smoke, if you do your family considers bad person…” (Happy) | ||
| “no,..no… I drink sometimes, maybe before I leave home I drink coffee because I don't want sleep, and sometimes I drink Red Bull… that's it… because of sleep” (Mònica) | ||
| Attitude and feelings in relation to their occupation | “it's very dangerous, you have to protect yourself”. (Jennifer) | |
| “Yes… because need money to eat, to pay the rent, does not have a job, papers…What can I do? But I don't like it, if I don't want to see a street, I think, I don't like to touch man, it is not right……” (Happy) | ||
| “It's not something you are proud of it… I want to stop it” (Anita) | ||
| “… for disease, also shame because have an older child, asks “mum, where are you going now?”“ (Osas) | ||
| “…better work in clubs than on the streets…but I don't have documents. I can't” (Osas) | ||
| “…me…I don't like the street, I have to survive on the streets …that is very hard” (Joy) | ||
| “…I don't like do this…, I don't want to work on the street… How can I do to eat?” (Happy) | ||
| The clients: sexual practices requested and refused | “Yes, I refuse the anal sex, I don't do it” (Anita) | |
| “clients want to suck without condom… but there are others who want nothing without condom… many tourists use condom.” (Joy) | ||
| “they act as if you were not human… because he pays thinks that you are going to do anything …” (Silvia) | ||
| “yes, sometimes…people request without condom…without condom….” (Mònica) | ||
| “with client… he tries want to suck without condom” (Joy) | ||
| “Maybe, some want to have sex with my anus…but I don't do that” (Mònica) | ||
| “Yes, and some ask you if they can fuck you in your ass…Yes, but I can't do that, I don't do that.… Yes, I refused the anal sex, I don't do it.” (Anita) | ||
| Social influences and adaptation in the host country | On their reception and the health and social resources in Catalonia | “Mmm… yes, once. It was last year, in Ramblas. I was caught by the police… they accused me of stilling…but nothing like that…” (Anita) |
| “…here experience, here adult courses, here I have learned a lot. But now there is no work” (Rosa) | ||
| “Here is better than my country… I'm doing a course…for…how to get job… how to do the cleaning… everything…” (Jennifer) | ||
| Proposals to improve their situation | “ahhh… I like if they can help us, maybe help some of us leave the streets, maybe put them in the school, going to school, from then they can get a job, many with they can assist them. Maybe they stop doing the job because is no one of them than like doing it. …Stop it.” (Anita) | |
| “I want the residency…They should sort out the things of the people that work…in the street, they must have rights and be able to be sick…Now more girls take to the streets…more…because there is no work, because of the crisis there are more girls in the street. They even leave the children on their own at home to go to work. Now there are many young…” (Silvia) | ||
| “I: How could you imagine your future in 3 years? I imagine maybe… sometimes… it can be better, working, my baby going to the school… and everything…” (Jennifer) |
STI, sexually transmitted infection.