Lexington Books Medical Transnationalism: Korean Immigrants' Medical Tourism to South Korea (Korean Communities across the World)

Medical Transnationalism examines Korean immigrants' distinctive healthcare behaviors, contributing factors to their medical tourism, and their experiences and evaluations of medical tourism. Analyzing survey data of 507 Korean immigrants and in-depth interviews with 120 Korean immigrants in the New York-New Jersey area, this book finds that there are three distinctive types of healthcare behaviors that Korean immigrants employ to deal with their barriers (e.g., the language barrier and not having health insurance) to formal US healthcare: dependence on co-ethnic doctors in the United States, the use of Hanbang (traditional Korean medicine) in the United States, and medical tours to the homeland. This book also finds that social transnational ties and health insurance status are the most influential contributing factors to Korean immigrants' decision to take medical tours to the home country. The vast majority of Korean immigrant medical tourists are satisfied with their medical tourism experiences. In this book, Sou Hyun Jang makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to the literature on immigrant healthcare and immigrant transnationalism by focusing on one immigrant group and connecting medical transnationalism to other types of transnationalism. The findings of this book imply that health programs for the most marginalized group-small business owners and their employees-and better support for bilingual Korean-English translators at hospitals are needed. Review In Medical Transnationalism, Sou Hyun Jang provides one of the first comprehensive studies of a growing trend in the Korean community as well as in other immigrant communities--traveling to the home country to meet their healthcare needs. Well-researched and timely, the book offers an intricate look into the role played by the Korean state and Korean hospitals in the globalization of medical tourism to South Korea, along with an examination of the barriers confronting Korean immigrants in accessing healthcare in the United States, such as lack of health insurance, language and cultural barriers, and high cost, which compel members of the community to fly thousands of miles to receive treatment and care.--Dae Young Kim, George Mason University Medical Transnationalism offers a comprehensive examination of medical tourism among Korean Americans, a recently emerging phenomenon. Utilizing data from multiple sources, including in-depth interviews with Korean immigrants, travel agents, and hospital staff, various relevant documents, and her own survey of Korean immigrants, Jang clearly articulates the barriers to healthcare encountered among Korean Americans, and thoroughly illuminates the process of how they actively seek out treatments for their medical needs. Further, Jang successfully contextualizes this rapidly growing phenomenon with the commercialized medicalization promoted by the Korean government and large hospitals in Korea. This compelling book provides a vivid understanding of medical tourism, and makes a unique contribution to the literature of medical sociology and immigration in the current globalized society.--Hyeyoung Woo, Portland State University In this fascinating book, Sou Hyun Jang delves into U.S. Korean immigrants' medical tourism to the homeland in detail using both qualitative and qualitative data. As the first major book focusing on the topic, it greatly contributes to immigrants' medical transnationalism, the social phenomenon so much neglected by transnational scholars. The book also sheds much light on the development of the medical-tourism industry in Korea and U.S. Korean immigrants' healthcare behaviors.--Pyong Gap Min, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY About the Author Sou Hyun Jang is research associate at the Research Center for Korean Community at Queens College.