Contemporary Korean immigrant businesses depart from the traditional patterns of immigrant businesses in two important respects. First, minority areas such as black neighborhoods are more important market places for Korean merchants than their own Korean community. Second, though ethnic solidarity and mutual cooperation among Koreans are still viable in Korean immigrant businesses, class interests and class resources are increasingly important as the basis of Korean immigrant businesses. Therefore, collective approaches to business on the basis of ascriptive ties such as extended kinship or regional ties became irrelevant for the recent Korean immigrants. Instead individualistic approaches become more significant. In order to account for the role of ethnicity and class in contemporary Korean immigrant businesses, this study attempts to assess the relative contribution of ethnic and class resources to Korean immigrant businesses and to examine how the relative significance of ethnic and class resources changes over the course of business development. Empirical results tend to support the arguments that while ethnic resources (i.e., financial resources, information or business advice one can gather from family members, friends or rotating credit associations) are important at the initial stage of business, they become irrelevant or insufficient at the advanced stage, and that class resources (i.e., individual human capital) become more important to determine the success level of business at the advanced stage of business development.
This article investigates factors that have contributed to the growth of the import-export business among Asian immigrants. The central argument is that the development of Asian immigrants’ import-export business has been closely related to the increasing economic linkages between Asian countries and their countrymen in the United States. Such economic linkages are a product of the global economic restructuring whereby some developing countries of Asia have become major exporters of low cost/low price consumer goods to the United States. The Korean immigrants’ wig business in Los Angeles is studied as a case of contemporary import-export trade among Asian immigrants, with major findings summarized as follows: first, the increased reliance of the United States on imported goods by the 1970s led to a rapid growth of the export-oriented industry in South Korea; second, wigs became the major export item of South Korea due to its cheap labor force and government-aid loans to the wig industry, third, a strong vertical integration developed between Korean wig manufacturers in South Korea and Korean importers, wholesalers, and retailers in the United States – that integration provided Korean immigrants with initial business opportunities in the U.S. economy, particularly in the low-income minority areas.
Social inclusion through close contacts with South Koreans and overcoming an arduous adaptation period, as well as addressing economic deprivation, are important in promoting the health of North Korean refugees in South Korea. These findings should be considered in crafting better resettlement and training programs for this population.
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