Jo Vearey
Biographic Data
| ID | 144912 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jo Vearey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jo |
| FAMILY NAME | Vearey |
| SIGNATURE | VEAREY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6636-1322 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 46 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Health on the move
Background Global human mobility has intensified due to globalization, economic inequality, conflict, and climate change, generating new vulnerabilities that disproportionately affect women's healthcare access. In sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV burden remains highest, migration intersects with gender and structural inequities to disrupt prevention and treatment services. South Africa—a major destination and transit country—illustrates these dynami…
Upholding the Right to Health in Contexts of Displacement
The Sustainable Development Goals commit states to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all; yet displaced populations-including asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and undocumented migrants-remain systematically excluded from national health systems across southern and eastern Africa. This paper applies a whole-of-route, rights-based framework to examine how legal status, policy implementation, and structural governance…
Closing the gap in the wrong direction” migration, health policy, and the exclusion of asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants from healthcare access in South Africa
South Africa is not merely failing to meet its UHC goals-it is actively retreating from them. Exclusionary practices, once informal, are now guiding policy. Ensuring healthcare is truly accessible, acceptable, and sustainable for all requires urgent policy, legal, and institutional reforms to protect healthcare access for all, irrespective of status. Without these actions, the most vulnerable will continue to be excluded from essential services, …
Bilateral health agreements of South Africa
The bilateral agreements signed between South Africa and countries in Southern and Eastern Africa are a rare example of efforts to regulate health-related issues in a world region. As far as we know, there are no comparable bilateral health governance mechanisms in regions elsewhere. Furthermore, the rapidly growing literature on global health governance and governance for global health has to date not addressed the issue of patient mobility and …
Compatible Compacts? The “Social Life” of Vulnerability, Migration Governance, and Protection at the Zimbabwe–South Africa Border
The central argument of this paper is that interventions of humanitarian organizations at the Zimbabwe–South Africa border reveal the importance placed on making very clear distinctions between those needing protection and those who do not. This is the case even in times wherein migrants have other protection needs that fall outside these boundaries or intersect with those of others. These boundaries are retained in the stable definitions of migr…
The role of institutional architecture in the reception of refugees in South Africa
Turning up the heat
Contrary to common narratives, participants framed the impacts of climate change-related events on migration patterns and their health implications as non-linear and indirect, comprising many interrelated individual, social, cultural, demographic, geographical, structural, and political determinants. An understanding of these interactions in various contexts is essential for risk reduction and preventative measures. The way forward broadly includ…
The Influence of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa
Framing Migration During the Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa
Assumptions surrounding the origins of Covid-19, the relationship between human mobility and the spread of the virus, and the pressure that the pandemic has placed on communities, have exacerbated xenophobic tensions globally, including in South Africa, a country long-associated with xenophobia. Previous research exploring how the South African media frames migration, and research investigating the framing of migration during Covid-19 in other co…
Addressing the migrant gap
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programming in South Africa. In 2020, it was estimated that there were 4 million cross-border migrants in South Africa, some of whom are women living with HIV (WLWH), who are highly mobile and located within peripheral and urban areas of Johannesburg. Little is known about the mobility typologies of these women associated with different…
Research on the move
BACKGROUND: Reflecting global norms, South Africa is associated with high levels of cross-border and internal population mobility, yet migration-aware health system responses are lacking. Existing literature highlights three methodological challenges limiting the development of evidence-informed responses to migration and health: (1) lack of engagement with the process of migration; (2) exclusion of internal migrants; and (3) lack of methodologie…
Using WhatsApp messenger for health systems research
Globally, the use of mobile phones for improving access to healthcare and conducting health research has gained traction in recent years as rates of ownership increase, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Mobile instant messaging applications, including WhatsApp Messenger, provide new and affordable opportunities for health research across time and place, potentially addressing the challenges of maintaining contact and parti…
Global health (security), immigration governance and Covid-19 in South(ern) Africa
The Covid-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder of the political tensions associated with the field of immigration and health, highlighting the central role that nationalism, racism and xenophobia play in determining responses to communicable diseases. The blurring of global health, immigration governance, and the global health security agendas has long been recognised. However, an improved understanding of the politics influencing these entangle…
The Seductive Nature of Participatory Research
In this paper, we explore the seductive nature of a participatory approach to research with marginalized migrant populations in South Africa. We outline the opportunities offered by such an approach while at the same time emphasizing the need for caution by showing how the ambitions of participatory research can sometimes be (mis)applied as a panacea for all of the tensions inherent in knowledge-production processes, including those associated wi…
Left behind”
Like many other countries, South Africa (SA) has committed to the Sustainable Development Goals that aim to “leave no-one behind”, in efforts towards universal health coverage, and meeting the UNAIDS 90–90–90 targets through the implementation of universal test and treat (UTT) interventions. SA is associated with high levels of international and internal migration that, in certain contexts, are known to (1) increase the risk of acquiring HIV and …
Universal Health Coverage
Towards a framework for multisector and multilevel collaboration
The framework does not suggest that multisector collaboration is a panacea, but that MSA remains critical to address complex health and development issues. Focus should be on finding innovative ways to inform and strengthen its implementation in practice. The framework can be used by practitioners and policy makers to inform design, implementation, and evaluation of multisector collaborations. It reflects on complexities of MSA, and brings to the…
Urban health in Africa
The African continent is predicted to be home to over half of the expected global population growth between 2015 and 2050, highlighting the importance of addressing population health in Africa for improving public health globally. By 2050, nearly 60% of the population of the continent is expected to be living in urban areas and 35-40% of children and adolescents globally are projected to be living in Africa. Urgent attention is therefore required…
Multisectoral (in)action
Whilst progress has been made, evidence of effective approaches to improve action on addressing the social and structural drivers of the HIV epidemic remains a priority, to meet the 2030 sustainable development agenda, and to achieve key HIV targets, including the 90-90-90 target and the Treatment as Prevention (TasP) intervention. With a focus on the public sector in South Africa, we critically reflect on the HIV mainstreaming approach, assessin…
Migration and health
Drawing on discussions with policy makers, research scholars, civil society, and United Nations agencies held in Colombo, we emphasize the urgent need for quality research on international and domestic (in-country) migration and health to support efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs aim to 'leave no-one behind' irrespective of their legal status. An ethically sound human rights approach to research that involves e…
Giving Birth in a Foreign Land
Maternal mortality in South Africa is unacceptably high, and interventions to address this are urgently needed. Whilst urban centres, such as Johannesburg, are home to significant numbers of non-national migrant women, little is known about their maternal healthcare experiences. In order to inform future research, an exploratory study investigating the maternal healthcare and help-seeking experiences of migrant women living in inner-city Johannes…
Urban Health in Johannesburg
Compared to their rural counterparts, cities are assumed to be spaces of improved access to livelihood opportunities and basic services-including healthcare, of better health outcomes, and of an extended life expectancy. At an aggregate level, this is often true but disaggregation of urban health indicators and outcomes within cities uncovers hidden intra-urban inequalities that clearly demonstrate that access to the urban benefit is unevenly dis…
Implementing a multi-sectoral response to HIV
BACKGROUND: A multi-sectoral response is advocated by international organisations as a good strategy to address the multiple drivers and impact of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and was historically mandated as a condition of funding. In March 2017, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) launched the latest 5 year National Strategic Plan (NSP) to address HIV, sexually transmitted infections a…
Analysing local-level responses to migration and urban health in Hillbrow
Johannesburg is home to a diverse migrant population and a range of urban health challenges. Locally informed and implemented responses to migration and health that are sensitive to the particular needs of diverse migrant groups are urgently required. In the absence of a coordinated response to migration and health in the city, the Johannesburg Migrant Health Forum (MHF) - an unfunded informal working group of civil society actors - was establish…
Leaving no one behind’
To improve efforts to address HIV in urban informal settings, intervention designers must acknowledge and engage with the priorities set by the marginalised communities that live here, which may well encompass more pressing issues associated with daily survival
Images of Place
Many migrants in inner-city Johannesburg survive through unconventional and sometimes criminalized livelihood activities. In this article, we draw on data from a study that applied a participatory visual methodology to work with migrant women who sell sex, and explored the suitability of this approach as a way to engage with a presumed 'hard to reach' urban population. The lived experiences of migrant women sex workers were documented by combinin…
Urban health in Johannesburg
Negotiating the city
This article explores the intersecting vulnerabilities of non-national migrant mothers who sell sex in Johannesburg, South Africa – one of the most unequal cities in the world. Migrants who struggle to access the benefits of the city live and work in precarious peripheral spaces where they experience intersecting vulnerabilities associated with gender norms, race, and nationality. These vulnerabilities manifest as abuse, discrimination, criminali…
Social Capital and Livelihoods in Johannesburg
Foreign-born migrants – a group rarely compared with both internal migrants and long-term residents – are often positioned as the most disadvantaged South African urban population. We use data from a 2008 cross-sectional household survey conducted in Johannesburg to compare a contextually relevant measure of social capital and livelihood advantages between foreign-born migrants, internal migrants, and long-term South African residents. Our findin…
Global health (security), immigration governance and Covid-19 in South(ern) Africa
The Covid-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder of the political tensions associated with the field of immigration and health, highlighting the central role that nationalism, racism and xenophobia play in determining responses to communicable diseases. The blurring of global health, immigration governance, and the global health security agendas has long been recognised. However, an improved understanding of the politics influencing these entangle…
Sampling in an Urban Environment
Through the discussion of the methodological and ethical challenges experienced when designing and implementing a cross-sectional household survey exploring linkages between migration, HIV and urban livelihoods in Johannesburg, this paper argues that it is possible to generate data sufficiently representative of the complexities and differences present in an African urban environment. This is achieved through employing purposive and random sampli…
The Influence of the Global Refugee Regime in Africa
Universal Health Coverage
Material deprivation and unemployment affect coercive sex among young people in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi
We explore relations among material deprivation (measured by insufficient housing, food insecurity and poor healthcare access), socio-economic status (employment, income and education) and coercive sex. A binary logistic multi-level model is used in the estimation of data from a survey of 1071 young people aged 18-23 years, undertaken between June and July 2013, in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi. For young men, unemployment was associated wi…
Material Deprivation Affects High Sexual Risk Behavior among Young People in Urban Slums, South Africa
Migration, access to ART, and survivalist livelihood strategies in Johannesburg
Since the end of apartheid, patterns of migration into South Africa have shifted, and South Africa has become a destination for people from across the African continent and beyond - a small but important number of whom are refugees and asylum seekers. While South Africa has a protective, integrative, urban refugee policy, many of these individuals struggle to access the rights to which they are entitled, including healthcare. In addition, many lo…
Hidden Spaces and Urban Health
Urban health in Johannesburg
Challenging urban health
This article is a review of the PhD thesis undertaken by Joanna Vearey that explores local government responses to the urban health challenges of migration, informal settlements, and HIV in Johannesburg, South Africa. Urbanisation in South Africa is a result of natural urban growth and (to a lesser extent) in-migration from within the country and across borders. This has led to the development of informal settlements within and on the periphery o…
South African HIV/Aids programming overlooks migration, urban livelihoods, and informal workplaces
South Africa has the largest population of people living with HIV globally and is associated with high population mobility. The majority of migrants move in search of improved livelihood opportunities, and many who migrate (both internally and across borders) move into urban areas, often through peripheral informal settlements where HIV prevalence is shown to be double that of urban formal areas. While the relationship between migration and the s…
Who cares? HIV-related sickness, urban–rural linkages, and the gendered role of care in return migration in South Africa
Drawing on a 2008 household study conducted with internal and cross-border migrant households in Johannesburg, South Africa, this article explores the impact of HIV-related sickness and the gendered provision of care on migration patterns. Findings show that the provision of care helps to sustain links between the livelihood systems of urban and rural households. In times of sickness, many migrants choose to return to their household of origin, t…
Migration Status, Work Conditions and Health Utilization of Female Sex Workers in Three South African Cities
Intersections between migration and sex work are underexplored in southern Africa, a region with high internal and cross-border population mobility, and HIV prevalence. Sex work often constitutes an important livelihood activity for migrant women. In 2010, sex workers trained as interviewers conducted cross-sectional surveys with 1,653 female sex workers in Johannesburg (Hillbrow and Sandton), Rustenburg and Cape Town. Most (85.3%) sex workers we…
Sampling in an Urban Environment
Through the discussion of the methodological and ethical challenges experienced when designing and implementing a cross-sectional household survey exploring linkages between migration, HIV and urban livelihoods in Johannesburg, this paper argues that it is possible to generate data sufficiently representative of the complexities and differences present in an African urban environment. This is achieved through employing purposive and random sampli…
Syrian refugees, between rocky crisis in Syria and hard inaccessibility to healthcare services in Lebanon and Jordan
Around 3% of the world's population (n = 214 million people) has crossed international borders for various reasons. Since March 2011, Syria has been going through state of political crisis and instability resulting in an exodus of Syrians to neighbouring countries. More than 1 million Syrian refugees are residents of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa. The international community must step up efforts to support Syrian refugees and th…
Dietary diversity of formal and informal residents in Johannesburg, South Africa
Respondents in the informal settlements were more nutritionally vulnerable. Achieving nutrition security requires policies, strategies and plans to include specific nutrition considerations
HIV, Population Mobility, and the Post-Conflict Nexus
As with many issues associated with the movement of people, linkages between mobility, HIV, conflict and post-conflict settings have often been based on conjecture rather than fact. Conflict was assumed to increase transmission of HIV, and displaced populations, refugees and armed forces were presumed to have higher HIV prevalence than host communities. However, recent evidence challenges these assumptions. This article explores the complex relat…
Material Deprivation Affects High Sexual Risk Behavior among Young People in Urban Slums, South Africa
Social Capital and Livelihoods in Johannesburg
Foreign-born migrants – a group rarely compared with both internal migrants and long-term residents – are often positioned as the most disadvantaged South African urban population. We use data from a 2008 cross-sectional household survey conducted in Johannesburg to compare a contextually relevant measure of social capital and livelihood advantages between foreign-born migrants, internal migrants, and long-term South African residents. Our findin…
The role of material deprivation and consumerism in the decisions to engage in transactional sex among young people in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi
Transactional sex has been associated with a high risk of HIV acquisition and unintended pregnancy among young women in urban slums in sub-Saharan Africa. However, few studies have explored the structural drivers of transactional sex from the perspective of both genders in these settings. This paper explores how young men and women understand the factors that lead to transactional sex among their peers, and how deprivation of material resources (…
Material deprivation and unemployment affect coercive sex among young people in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi
We explore relations among material deprivation (measured by insufficient housing, food insecurity and poor healthcare access), socio-economic status (employment, income and education) and coercive sex. A binary logistic multi-level model is used in the estimation of data from a survey of 1071 young people aged 18-23 years, undertaken between June and July 2013, in the urban slums of Blantyre, Malawi. For young men, unemployment was associated wi…
Images of Place
Many migrants in inner-city Johannesburg survive through unconventional and sometimes criminalized livelihood activities. In this article, we draw on data from a study that applied a participatory visual methodology to work with migrant women who sell sex, and explored the suitability of this approach as a way to engage with a presumed 'hard to reach' urban population. The lived experiences of migrant women sex workers were documented by combinin…
“Son of the Soil … Daughters of the Land”
South Africa's Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Freedom Charter are globally ground-breaking for providing provisions of non-discrimination, and, of particular note, on the basis of sexual orientation. Since the introduction of these protective frameworks, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) communities, allies, and advocates in the country have won major legal battles on these issues; however, in spite of these suc…
Exploring The Migration Profiles of Primary Healthcare Users in South Africa
South Africa's public healthcare system responses seldom engage with migration. Our exploratory study investigates migration profiles and experiences of primary healthcare (PHC) users. A cross-sectional survey involving non-probability sampling was conducted with 229 PHC users at six purposively selected PHC clinics in three districts of SA. The survey captured socio-demographic information, migration histories, and PHC experiences. Chi square an…
Research ethics in practice
Studies researching interpersonal violence (IPV) are associated with a range of ethical challenges. In this article, lessons are drawn from three case studies exploring the experiences of different groups of survivors and perpetrators of IPV in diverse contexts: refugees in the Thailand-Burma border area; partner-violent adult men and female survivors in Ireland; and school children in five European countries. The ethical – and associated methodo…
Giving Birth in a Foreign Land
Maternal mortality in South Africa is unacceptably high, and interventions to address this are urgently needed. Whilst urban centres, such as Johannesburg, are home to significant numbers of non-national migrant women, little is known about their maternal healthcare experiences. In order to inform future research, an exploratory study investigating the maternal healthcare and help-seeking experiences of migrant women living in inner-city Johannes…
Urban Health in Johannesburg
Compared to their rural counterparts, cities are assumed to be spaces of improved access to livelihood opportunities and basic services-including healthcare, of better health outcomes, and of an extended life expectancy. At an aggregate level, this is often true but disaggregation of urban health indicators and outcomes within cities uncovers hidden intra-urban inequalities that clearly demonstrate that access to the urban benefit is unevenly dis…
Implementing a multi-sectoral response to HIV
BACKGROUND: A multi-sectoral response is advocated by international organisations as a good strategy to address the multiple drivers and impact of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and was historically mandated as a condition of funding. In March 2017, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) launched the latest 5 year National Strategic Plan (NSP) to address HIV, sexually transmitted infections a…
Analysing local-level responses to migration and urban health in Hillbrow
Johannesburg is home to a diverse migrant population and a range of urban health challenges. Locally informed and implemented responses to migration and health that are sensitive to the particular needs of diverse migrant groups are urgently required. In the absence of a coordinated response to migration and health in the city, the Johannesburg Migrant Health Forum (MHF) - an unfunded informal working group of civil society actors - was establish…
Leaving no one behind’
To improve efforts to address HIV in urban informal settings, intervention designers must acknowledge and engage with the priorities set by the marginalised communities that live here, which may well encompass more pressing issues associated with daily survival
Beyond the single story
In this contribution, Elsa Oliveira and Jo Vearey, researchers at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Witswatersrand University, and founders of the MoVE method:visual:explore project, share insights into why we need to think differently about ways of doing research with marginalised migrant groups – including migrant sex workers in South Africa
Political science (32 works) · Medicine (30 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Economic growth (25 works) · Geography (25 works) · Economics (17 works) · Environmental health (17 works) · Population (17 works) · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses (16 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (15 works)