Jang Sou Hyun
City University of New York (CUNY), Graduate Center, Department of Sociology, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2016 Nov;168:93-100. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.09.007. Epub 2016 Sep 8.
This paper examines first-generation Korean immigrants' barriers to healthcare in the US and their strategies for coping with these issues by analyzing survey data from 507 Korean immigrants and in-depth interviews with 120 Korean immigrants in the New York-New Jersey area. It reports that more than half of Korean immigrants have barriers to healthcare in the US, with the language barrier being the most frequent response, followed by having no health insurance. Korean immigrants are not passive, but rather active entities who display coping strategies for these barriers, such as seeing co-ethnic doctors in the US, seeking Hanbang (traditional Korean medicine) in the US, and taking medical tours to the home country. However, their coping strategies are far removed from formal US healthcare as their behaviors are still restricted to the informal healthcare within the ethnic community or home country. This study methodologically and theoretically contributes to the literature on immigrants' healthcare behaviors by using a mixed-method approach and developing a specific framework for one particular immigrant group.
本文通过分析507名韩国移民的调查数据以及对纽约-新泽西地区120名韩国移民的深入访谈，研究了第一代韩国移民在美国面临的医疗保健障碍以及他们应对这些问题的策略。报告称，超过一半的韩国移民在美国面临医疗保健障碍，其中语言障碍是最常见的问题，其次是没有医疗保险。韩国移民并非被动接受，而是积极应对这些障碍，采取了一些应对策略，比如在美国看同族医生、在美国寻求韩医（传统韩国医学），以及回国就医。然而，他们的应对策略与美国正规医疗保健相去甚远，因为他们的行为仍局限于族裔社区或祖国的非正规医疗保健。本研究采用混合研究方法并为一个特定移民群体开发了一个具体框架，在方法和理论上为有关移民医疗保健行为的文献做出了贡献。
