Ethnicity, opportunity, and upward mobility: Korean entrepreneurship in the Argentine garment industry 1965–2015

ABSTRACT

Currently, among the approximately 20,000 ethnic Koreans living in Argentina, an estimated 80% are engaged in the garment industry. Within the theoretical frameworks of immigrant entrepreneurship, this research examines why and how Korean Argentines have been continuously concentrated in the clothing industry from the beginning of Korean immigration in the 1960s to the present. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Argentina and on archival and documentary research, this study illustrates how Korean immigrant community in Argentina has settled and achieved upward mobility in the face of complex and fluctuating social and economic circumstances, combining opportunities with strategies and resources to create comparative advantages and benefits. By combining historical contextualisation with theories on immigrant entrepreneurs that had previously only been tested on short-term study periods, findings further suggest that scholars should pay closer attention to historical shifts and accounts in analysing longer-term periods of ethnic business.

KEYWORDS:

• Korean immigrant entrepreneurship
• Argentine garment industry
• ethnic resources
• opportunity
• upward mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There is no official data vis-à-vis the number of Korean-owned garment businesses. However, the main community organisations, such as Korean Association in Argentina and the Chamber of Korean Entrepreneurs in Argentina, typically report and agree that 80–90% of ethnic Koreans are engaged in the apparel industry.

2. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 246–247.

3. “Episode 86: Kim Hongyeal”, Age of Global Success, KBS Documentary (16/03/2013). http://goo.gl/xNdFJ6 (shortened URL).

4. For research into the role of ethnic resources as well as that of class in the formation and operation of ethnic enterprise, see Light, “Immigrant and Ethnic Enterprise in North America”; Light and Gold, Ethnic Economies; and Light and Rosenstein, Race, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship.

5. For summaries of middleman minority theory, see Bonacich, “A Theory of Middleman Minorities”; and Zenner, Minorities in the Middle. In particular, many researchers have indicated that Korean entrepreneurs in the US serve as a middlemen minority because they are caught in vulnerable positions between white providers and low-income black customers. For studies on the middlemen minority characteristics of Korean entrepreneurs in the US, please see Min, Caught in the Middle; Min and Kolodny, “The Middleman Minority Characteristics”; and Yoon, On my Own.

6. For other studies on ethnic enclaves, see Portes, “The Social Origins of the Cuban”; Portes and Shaffer, “Revisiting the Enclave Hypothesis”; and Zhou, Chinatown.

7. Kloosterman and Rath, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs”, 5.

8. Kloosterman et al., “Mixed Embeddedness”; Kloosterman and Rath, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs”; and Rath, Unravelling the Rag Trade.

9. Kloosterman et al., “Mixed Embeddedness”; Barrett, “Socio-Economic and Policy”; and Kloosterman, “Matching Opportunities with Resources”.

10. Waldinger, “Structural Opportunity or Ethnic Advantage?”

11. Waldinger, Through the Eye of the Needle; Morokvasic, “Immigrants in Garment Production”; Bonacich and Appelbaum, Behind the Label; Green, Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work; and Rath, Unravelling the Rag Trade.

12. Jeon, Segyeui Hanminjok (6), 62.

13. Park, “Nobody Remembers the Losers”.

14. Lee 1992, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 130–34; and Son, “Nyeondae Nammi Nongeom Imin”, 163–64.

15. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 87–89.

16. Ibid., 187.

17. Ibid., 241.

18. Light and Bonacich, Immigrant Entrepreneurs; and Min, Caught in the Middle.

19. Morokvasic, “Immigrants in Garment Production”; Light and Bonacich, Behind the Label; Light et al. (1999), “Immigrant Incorporation’; and Chin, Sewing Women: immigrants and the New York City garment industry.

20. Light and Bonacich, Behind the Label.

21. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 141.

22. Ibid. According to Lee, the small grocery shop was another business preference of pioneering Korean immigrants. However, since the early 1990s, the number of Korean grocery shops has declined noticeably, as many of those owners moved into the garment industry.

23. Bialogorski, “La presencia coreana en la Argentina”, 97–98.

24. Light and Gold, Ethnic Economies, 114–115.

25. Yoon, On my Own, 142.

26. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 249.

27. Ibid.

28. Bialogorski, “La presencia coreana en la Argentina”, 296.

29. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 288.

30. Ibid.

31. See note 11 above.

32. Light, Deflecting Immigration, 85–86.

33. Lee, Areuhentina haninimin 25nyeonsa, 197–198.

34. Bialogorski, :La presencia coreana en la Argentina”, 295.

35. See note 35 above.

36. In the interview with Hanjun Park, the former president of the Chamber of Korean Entrepreneurs in Argentina used and cited the estimates provided from the same organisation prior to 2014.

37. The most used Korean websites in Argentina are Chamber of Korean Entrepreneurs in Argentina (http://www.iacea.com.ar/gnu/bbs/index.html); and Nammihanuri (http://nammihanuri.com/).

38. Interview with Hanjun Park.

39. Ibid.

40. Light and Gold, Ethnic Economies; and Yoon, “The Changing Significance of Ethnic”.

41. Kim, “Leaving the Ethnic Economy;” Portes and Zhou (1993), “The New Second Generation”; Portes and Rumbaut (2001), Legacies; and Zhou (1997), “Segmented Assimilation”.

42. Kim, “Leaving the Ethnic Economy”.

43. Portes and Sensenbrenner “Embeddedness and Immigration”.

44. Light and Bonacich, Immigrant Entrepreneurs; and Light and Gold, Ethnic Economies.

45. Portes, “Social Capital”; Portes and Landolt, “Social Capital”; Portes and Sensebrenner, “Embeddedness and Immigration”.

46. See note 11 above.

47. Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jihye Kim

Jihye Kim is a lecturer in Korean Studies in the School of Language and Global Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. A specialist in the migration and settlement experiences of diasporic Koreans, Dr. Kim has published articles on Korean and Korean Chinese (Joseonjok) immigrants in Argentina. Her current research has expanded to include the experiences of these immigrants in Brazil and North Korean immigration in the United Kingdom.