“I go because I don’t have an alternative”: Older Portuguese Immigrant Women’s Experiences Accessing and Using Health Care Services in Toronto

Existing research indicates that health inequalities are complex and impact groups differently. Group-specific settlement experiences affect how health care services are accessed and used. Of these groups, older immigrant women face exacerbated challenges and disadvantages related to the compounding negative influence of gender and aging (Wang, Guruge & Montana, 2019). Expanding on existing literature in the field of immigrant health, this study focuses on the Portuguese community in Toronto and their interactions with the health care system. Specifically, this study explores the ethnicized, gendered, and class-specific settlement experiences of Portuguese immigrant women and how these experiences influence the way health care services are accessed and used in older age. This qualitative study is based on interviews with older Portuguese immigrant women living in Toronto, as well as Portuguese-speaking health and social service providers who serve the Portuguese community in Toronto. Guided by the theoretical approach of intersectionality, this study found that the cumulative, lifelong settlement challenges that participants experienced stretched well into their older years and negatively influenced their access to and use of health care services. In addition, this study also found that study participants unexpectedly identified systemic barriers such as issues related to patriarchy, gender relations, and violence within their private lives in addition to discrimination based on gender, class, and ethnicity while engaging in accessing and using health care services.