Abstract
BackgroundMigrants settling in a new country experience multiple complexities in navigating health care systems and adapting to a new way of life in the host country. In South Asia, migrating to another country for better life opportunities has been an ongoing trend and migration to Australia has significantly increased in recent years. Lower utilisation of health services and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants poses a continuing challenge for the Australian health care system and little is known about why this demographic group does not access health services at the same rate. This study aimed to explore factors influencing access to health care by South Asian migrants in Australia.MethodsUsing a mixed-method design, we conducted 62 online survey and 14 in-depth interviews with participants from four South Asian countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. Participants were recruited using a purposive snowball sampling approach following a standard ethical approval process. Survey data were analysed descriptively in SPSS and interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically.ResultsSouth Asian migrants experienced various complexities while accessing health services in Australia. The findings of this study highlighted a number of negative factors influencing their experiences of accessing health care: long waiting times for public health care, the expense of private health care, and communication problems due to socio-cultural differences. South Asian migrants also expressed their concern for a greater investment of resources into public health care to enable them to access quality and affordable care in these settings.ConclusionsGiven limited evidence available to help understand factors leading to the lower utilisation of health care and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants, this study plays an important role in highlighting social, cultural, financial, and institutional factors that are critical to designing appropriate health-care strategies. This study recommends incorporating a collaborative and culturally competent model of care to increase access to health care and thereby help reduce existing disparities in health outcomes among South Asian migrant populations.
Highlights
Migrants settling in a new country experience multiple complexities in navigating health care systems and adapting to a new way of life in the host country
To gain a deeper understanding of factors influencing access to health care among migrant populations, this paper focuses on the experiences of accessing health care in general among South Asian migrants in Australia
In this paper, findings gathered through online survey are presented under quantitative results whereas the themes emerged from the interviews and open-ended responses are presented under qualitative results
Summary
Migrants settling in a new country experience multiple complexities in navigating health care systems and adapting to a new way of life in the host country. Lower utilisation of health services and higher risks of chronic diseases among South Asian migrants poses a continuing challenge for the Australian health care system and little is known about why this demographic group does not access health services at the same rate. Disparities in health outcomes among migrants are a growing concern in developed countries including Australia, Canada, USA, and New Zealand where most migration from other countries occurs for various reasons - study, employment, safety and better life experiences [1,2,3,4]. While most South Asians come as migrants to seek better life opportunities in Australia, their settlement experiences are impacted by multiple factors such as language differences, cultural backlash, lack of suitable employment, social isolation and experiences of different forms of discrimination [7, 17, 18]
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