Gary Papas

This paper analyzes the spatial accessibility of four immigrant groups to linguistically appropriate family physicians in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). The four ethnic groups are two longstanding communities - Italian and Portuguese and two recent groups - Pakistani and Hong Kong Chinese. The study focuses on the spatial (mis)match between the residential distribution of each ethnic group and the distribution of linguistically appropriate family physicians to gain insight on the spatial equity of health services across the CMA. Data analyzed in this paper include the physician dataset from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) in 2005 and geo-referenced 2001 Canadian Census data. In accordance to the location quotients, this study utilizes the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) model to calculate spatial accessibility for the four ethnic groups to linguistically-matched family physicians. Accessibility scores are measured against one another, in order to evaluate the overall associations each ethnicity has with one another. This study essentially highlights areas where poor accessibility exists, and provides a comparison among the four groups and between two recent and longstanding immigrant groups. It is the comparative nature of this study that contributes to the existing literature on immigrant health and accessibility.