A Study of Immigrants’ Medical Transnationalism: Contributing Factors to Korean Immigrants’ Medical Tourism

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Health, Medicine, and Global Networks

Abstract

This paper examines contributing factors to Korean immigrants’ decisions to take medical tours to Korea, which has emerged as a field of study in immigrant medical transnationalism. This paper finds that social transnational ties with the home country was the most deeply related to Korean immigrants’ medical tours to the home country. Their political and cultural transnational ties were also related to the likelihood of engaging in medical tourism, but not as much as social transnational ties. Surprisingly, Korean immigrants’ health insurance status itself, which was assumed to be significant, was not significantly associated with medical tourism. Rather, it played a role as a mediating factor between temporary resident status and medical tourism. This paper contributes to the literature of immigrant transnationalism by investigating medical transnationalism, an under-researched area of transnationalism.

Author

• Sou Hyun Jang, Graduate Center, The City University of New York