People Living with HIV in the USA and Germany, 2014 A Comparative Study of Biographical Experiences of Chronic Illness

Lauren Kaplan illuminates the problematic issues in the life experiences of people living with HIV. She focuses on the challenges embedded in social policy such as access, cost, and availability of quality medical care as well as immigration policies, which can restrict the freedom of people to travel, work, and live in different nations and regions. Another focus are stigma, discrimination as well as existential struggles of identity, meaning, and reality. By engaging in a transnational comparison, the author identifies areas of strength and weakness in domestic U.S. policy as compared to social policies in Germany.

Financial Freedom and Autonomy.- Stigma: Appearance, Privacy, and Visibility.- Migration Experiences: Asylum Seeker Social Policy and Barriers to U.S. Travel.- Reversal of Agency: Denial and the Construction of Alternate Reality.

Lauren Kaplan completed her doctoral dissertation at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. She is now a research officer in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at Oxford University.

Study in the field of social sciences Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras