As one woman describes the pain in her stiff back, Kim holds the woman's hand, runs her other hand over the woman's shoulders and then down her spine, and assures her nothing seems unusual. Another elderly woman pulls from her purse five bottles of medicine. She points to the label of each, typed in English, and asks Kim to explain what it's meant to treat. Most of the 250 Korean Americans registered at the Greenmount Senior Center do not speak English well enough to ask their physicians about their health concerns. Such barriers to health are increasingly problematic in Baltimore and in cities throughout the country, as immigration among Koreans has risen.
Korean immigrants form one of the fastest-growing Asian subpopulations in the country.
Most of the 250 Korean American elderly at the Greenmount Senior Center don't speak English well enough to communicate with their physicians. That's where Nursing's Miyong Kim comes in. Demographers estimate that around 35,000 Korean Americans live in the Greater Baltimore area, almost half of them in the city, according to Kim. Typically, Koreans settle in metropolitan areas such as New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles, where they can find affordable housing, service-industry jobs, and, more important, immigrant communities. Such communities often include Korean lawyers, cab drivers, restaurant owners, clergy, and language interpreters who can aid them during the acculturation process.