Assessing the Efficacy of Medical and Cultural Support for Immigrant Adaptation and Social Integration
,
Abstract
Background: The research was designed to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of immigrants towards extra medical support programs that Immigrant Support Centers (ISC) offer. We aimed to find how they evaluate such medical support in terms of helpfulness for social integration in the host country.
Methods: The study was performed in South Korea during May-June 2023. A questionnaire was prepared in six languages, with 132 participants. The survey categorized the respondents into three groups, group (A) that received only medical support, group (B) that received only cultural support, and group (C) that received both. The statistical program SPSS windows 22.0 was used for the analysis, and finding the most effective way of medical and cultural support programs was verified through inter-group analysis.
Results: The analysis of the results shows that the immigrants find the biggest hardship in the new country when a health problem occurs. The most significant barriers were language differences and cultural differences. The immigrants’ participation in the extra medical support programs can address those barriers. However, time, age, and length of stay were significant factors, and most of the participants found the extra cultural support more effective at the earlier stage of their stay in Korea.
Discussion: The study suggests that it is important to provide both medical and cultural support in the early stage of the immigrants staying in another country. Indeed, this might be a way to use medical support to induce them to further adaptation. Besides, providing culturally oriented medical support is likely to foster social integration through medical support.
2. Bajgain BB, Bajgain KT, Badal S, Aghajafa-ri F, Jackson J, Santana MJ (2020). Pa-tient-reported experiences in accessing primary healthcare among immigrant population in Canada: a rapid literature review. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17 (23):8724.
3. Chae DH, Kim H, Seo MJ, Asami K, Doorenbos A (2022). Public health cen-ter service experiences and needs among immigrant women in South Ko-rea. J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs, 33(4):385-395.
4. Song Y J (2009). The South Korean health care system. JMAJ, 52 (3):206-209.
5. Connell J (2013). Contemporary medical tourism: conceptualisation, culture and commodification. Tourism Management, 34:1-13.
6. Ormond M (2013). Harnessing diasporic medical mobilities. In: Migration, Health and Inequality. Eds, F. Thomas, & J. Gideon. London, pp. 150-162.
7. Boutin-Foster C, Foster JC, Konopasek L (2008). Physician, know theyself: The professional culture of medicine as a framework for teaching cultural competence. Acad Med, 83 (1):106-111.
8. Bowen S (2000). Language barriers in access to health care. Ottawa: Health Canada.
9. Lim DJ (2021). Multicultural meanings of social support among immigrants and refugees. International Migration, 46 (3): 123–159.
10. Lim DJ (2021). Performance of social inte-gration programs for immigrants and influential factors: Evidence from the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP). Int J Intercult Relat, 81:108-20.
11. Rokni L, Park SH, Turgay A (2019). Improv-ing medical tourism services through human behaviour and cultural compe-tence. Iran J Public Health, 48(11):988–1996.
12. Lee JY, Kearns RA, Friesen W (2010). Seek-ing affective health care: Korean immi-grants’ use of homeland medical ser-vices. Health Place, 16 (1):108-115.
13. Alizadeh S, Chavan M (2016). Cultural competence dimensions and outcomes: a systematic review of the literature. Health Soc Care Community, 24 (6):e117-e130.
14. Yu JY, Ko TG (2012). A cross-cultural study of perceptions of medical tourism among Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists in Korea. Tourism Management, 33 (1), 80-88.
15. Paez KA, Allen JK, Beach MC, Carson KA, Cooper LA (2009). Physician cultural competence and patient ratings of the patient-physician relationship. J Gen In-tern Med, 24: 495-498.
16. Delphin-Rittmon ME, Andres-Hyman R, Flanagan EH, Davidson L (2013). Seven essential strategies for promoting and sustaining systemic cultural competence. Psychiatr Q, 84:53-64.
17. Limberger AA (2010). Impact of repeated partic-ipation in computer-based cultural competency review training on cultural competence of healthcare providers and satisfaction outcomes among their patients. Doctoral dissertation: TUI University.
18. Gannon MJ, Pillai R. (2015). Understanding global cultures: Metaphorical journeys through 34 nations, clusters of nations, continents, and diversity. Sage Publications. 5th edition. Washington DC.
19. National Human Rights Commission of Korea (2022). Ministry of Justice’s Immi-gration and Foreign Policy Headquar-ters. https://www.immigration.go.kr/
20. Lee Hj (2024). Korea could disappear from map if it doesn't welcome more immi-grants: justice minister. The Korea Times. https://www.propertyjournal.co.nz/news/korea-could-disappear-from-map-if-it-doesnt-welcome-more-immigrants-justice-minister/26236/
21. Schroeter S, James C (2015). We’re here be-cause we’re black: The schooling experi-ence of French-speaking African-Canadian Students with Refugee Back-ground. Race Ethnicity and Education, 18(1): 20–39.
22. Berry J W, Hou F (2017). Acculturation, Discrimination and Wellbeing among Second Generation of Immigrants in Canada. Int J Intercult Relat, 61: 29–39.
23. Nkimbeng M, Janiece L Taylor, Laken R et al. (2021). All I know is that there is a lot of discrimination: Older African immi-grants’ experiences of discrimination in the United States. Geriatr Nurs, 42:196-204.
24. Shin YN, Hasegawa S, Choi KJ (2019). Health Status Analysis of Undocument-ed Migrants and Proposal for Improved Access to Health and Medical Services: Focusing on Literature Review and Ex-pert Interview. Journal of Public Society, 9-1: 72-73.
25. Lim DJ (2021). Performance of social inte-gration programs for immigrants and influential factors: Evidence from the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP). Int J Intercult Relat, 81:108-121.
26. Kim YM et al. (2014). Meaning and Practi-cal Application of Leisure as a Cultural Welfare for Adjustment of Marriage Mi-grant Women in Korea. The Korean Jour-nal of Physical Education, 53-2: 407-421.
27. Lee MJ (2022). Differential Effects of Reli-gion on Discrimination and Life Satis-faction among Youth Immigrant in South Korea. Journal of Social Thoughts and Culture, 25(1): 149-182.
28. Kim SY (2020). Health Problems and Ac-cess to Medical Services of Migrant In-donesian Students. MA Thesis. College of Medicine, Yonsei University, South Korea.
29. Sun Bk (2023). The Health Policy of Mi-grants in Korea: Institutionalization Sta-tus and Issues. The Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 14(1): 3229-3242.
30. Golam Hafiz MD, Shin Jw (2018). A Study of Social Networks of Bangladeshi Mi-grants in South Korea. Diaspora Studies, 12: 213-249.
31. Shin Sun-young (2016). The Effect of Social Capital in the Korean Nepal Migrant Com-munity on Social Integration; the Mediating Effect of Cultural Adaptation. MSc Thesis. Department of Public Policy and Man-agement, Yonsei University, South Korea.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 53 No 6 (2024) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Immigrant South Korea Medical support programs Cultural support programs | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
