Echoes of Home: Mapping Vulnerable Places for Cantonese-Speaking Immigrants Seeking Family Doctors in the Greater Toronto Area

Abstract

Family doctors serve as the initial contact for individuals seeking regular medical service like routine physical exam, diagnosis, and treatment of illness. Nonetheless, immigrant population who do not speak the official language usually prefers receiving healthcare in their own mother tongues. Past studies have focused on exploring accessibility to family doctors speaking Mandarin Chinese, which is not mutually intelligible with another major Chinese language called Cantonese. Despite the significant number of Cantonese-speaking population in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and a recent wave of immigration from Hong Kong, China (hereafter “Hong Kong”) to Canada, little knowledge has been obtained regarding the geographic accessibility to Cantonese-speaking family doctors. This study seeks to fill the knowledge gap of spatial accessibility to Cantonese-speaking family doctors in the GTA by using the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method. By considering the vulnerability in terms of spatial accessibility and attractiveness to the new immigrants from Hong Kong, we have unveiled that more than 90% of neighbourhoods, with below-median accessibility scores across all five thresholds yet high likelihood of attracting new Hong Kong immigrants, are clustered within four lower-tier municipalities of Markham, Toronto, Richmond Hill, and Vaughan. This study not only sheds lights on the knowledge gap but also provides timely guidance in formulating public health policies in light of the incoming Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong.