mining was the leading industry until 2000, contributing 27 percent of export trade. In 2000, the role of the mining sector sharply declined, due to a contracting economy, high unemployment, and a 60 percent inflation rate. For the first time in 20 years, production in the major commodities, including gold declined by 17–60 percent (Encyclopedia of the Nation, 2011). After years of decline, the Zimbabwean production output of the country’s mining sector is recovering and it reached 13.3 percent of the GDP in 2008 (The Chamber of mines of Zimbabwe, 2011).

## **2.2. Miners’ migration and HIV infection**

A combination of factors suggests a potential positive correlation between labor migration in the mines and the risk of being infected with the HIV virus. Some factors are linked to the migration phenomena itself, some others are particular to the mining context, with crucial consequences for the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and in the miners’ country of origin.

First, mine migrants must reside away from their families for a temporary but long period of time. During these months, they may be more likely to have multiple concurrent partners, increasing their risk of being infected by the virus. Sexual relationships that overlap over a period of time increase the likelihood of person-to-person sexual transmission. This is due to extremely high viral loads during the first few weeks of HIV infection, the so-called acute infection period. Consequently, sexual networks characterized by concurrent relationships create an environment conducive to the rapid spread of HIV (NAC, 2009). Further, because their mining contracts span many months, miners and their longer-term girlfriends at the mining site may tend to trust each other and be less likely to use condoms than in a more casual relationship. After contracting the virus, they might infect their wives or long-term partners when they return to their country.

Second, miners have traditionally been accommodated in single-sex, regimented, companyowned compounds or hostels, located close to the mining sites. As a result of this situation, and because miners earn higher incomes, an active sex industry has arisen in the areas surrounding the South African mines. Commercial sex workers are a key group at high-risk for HIV infection and transmission (Abdool Karim et al. 1995; Nagot et al. 2002, Ramjee et al. 2005).

Third, mining is a very dangerous occupation and AIDS may be considered a distant threat compared to the more immediate dangers that miners have to constantly face during their daily job. This might raise barriers to behavioral changes, such as more frequent use of condoms with commercial sex workers.

There may be also an indirect relationship between migrant labor in the mines and HIV infection. Miners’ wives or their long-term partners, who are waiting for their husbands to come back from the mines, may also engage in extra-marital sexual relationships.

The long absences from home, the dangerous work in the mines, and sex workers around the mining sites have created high-risk groups – namely miners and their partners – that have been overlooked in the literature thus far. These groups could be instrumental in spreading HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Southern Africa.

# **3. The data: A descriptive analysis**

The three datasets used for this study are nationally representative and come from the standard Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in Lesotho (2004), Swaziland (2006-2007) and 6