First-generation Korean immigrants' barriers to healthcare and their coping strategies in the US

- This paper uses a mixed-method approach with survey data and in-depth interviews.
- Language barriers and uninsured status are the biggest barriers to US healthcare.
- Korean immigrants show alternative coping strategies for barriers to US healthcare.
- Some coping strategies are inter-related.
- Strategies are restricted to healthcare within the ethnic community or home country.

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.