A Latent Class Analysis of Attitudes Towards Asylum Seeker Access to Health Care

In the past decade there has been an increase in focus on the concept of deservingness and how it plays out in debates around health care for migrant populations with precarious legal status. This study uses latent class analysis to identify subtypes of attitudes regarding asylum seeker access to health care and endorsement of support for asylum seeker access to care among 4066 employees of health care institutions in Montreal and Toronto, Canada. Authors identified four classes of attitudes towards asylum seeker access to care named ‘Favorable,’ ‘Opposed,’ ‘Ambivalent/Reactive,’ and ‘Unconcerned/Status quo’. The odds of endorsing access to health care depended on the individual’s class membership of asylum seeker attitude. Although there are segments of the population that overwhelmingly endorse, or reject, asylum seeker access to care, there are important variants in opinions and beliefs. Interventions are needed to engage professionals more ambivalent or opposed to asylum seeker access to care.