A Study of Access to Support Services by Immigrant Populations in Midwestern Counties in the United States

The purpose of this quantitative-descriptive study was to examine the perceptions of immigrants in Midwest counties access to government healthcare services. This study was based on the Rawls Theory of Justice and Social Stratification Theory. Immigrant perceptions were assessed using the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). Research questions (RQ) for the study were as follows: RQ 1—What differences exist in immigrant perceptions of their access to government health services, with respect to immigrant status and gender of the immigrant? RQ 2—What differences exist in immigrant perceptions of their access to government health services, with respect to immigrant status and age of the immigrant? RQ 3—What differences exist in immigrant perceptions of their access to government health services, with respect to immigrant status of the immigrant? The survey was sent to 85 immigrants who quantified for the study through Qualtrics, an online survey software company. All participants were either new immigrant or US citizen immigrants, age 18 and older. To address the research questions, a two-way MANOVA and an independent sample t-test were conducted to analyze the effects on the perceptions of access to government services with respect to the gender, age and the immigration status. Although previous research indicated a lack of access immigrants have to social services, this study results showed that the participants’ responses about their perceptions of access to government services were not significantly different according to gender, age and immigration status (p \u3e .05)