Edna Bonacich & Ivan Light 
Immigrant Entrepreneurs [EPUB ebook] 
Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982

A decade in preparation,
Immigrant Entrepreneurs offers the most comprehensive case study ever completed of the causes and consequences of immigrant business ownership. Koreans are the most entrepreneurial of America’s new immigrants. By the mid-1970s Americans had already become aware that Korean immigrants were opening, buying, and operating numerous business enterprises in major cities. When Koreans flourished in small business, Americans wanted to know how immigrants could find lucrative business opportunities where native-born Americans could not. Somewhat later, when Korean-black conflicts surfaced in a number of cities, Americans also began to fear the implications for intergroup relations of immigrant entrepreneurs who start in the middle rather than at the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy.


Nowhere was immigrant enterprise more obvious or impressive than in Los Angeles, the world’s largest Korean settlement outside of Korea and America’s premier city of small business. Analyzing both the short-run and the long-run causes of Korean entrepreneurship, the authors explain why the Koreans could find, acquire, and operate small business firms more easily than could native-born residents. They also provide a context for distinguishing clashes of culture and clashes of interest which cause black-Korean tensions in cities, and for framing effective policies to minimize the tensions.



A decade in preparation,
Immigrant Entrepreneurs offers the most comprehensive case study ever completed of the causes and consequences of immigrant business ownership. Koreans are the most entrepreneurial of America’s new immigrants. By the mid-19

Table of Content

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Preface


PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I. Immigrant Entrepreneurs in America


PART TWO THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT AND THE ROOTS OF EMIGRATION 

2. Cheap Labor in South Korea: The U.S. Role

3. The Role of the Korean Government

4. Emigration from South Korea


PART THREE KOREAN BUSINESS IN LOS ANGELES

5. Immigration and Settlement

6. Entrepreneurs and Firms

7. Class and Ethnic Resources

8. Business Location

9. The Retail Liquor Industry

10. Raising Capital

11. Sources of Entrepreneurship

12. Reaction and Solidarity


PART FOUR KOREAN SMALL BUSINESS IN AMERICAN CAPITALISM

13. The Protection of U.S. Labor Standards

14. The Cheapness of Korean Immigrant Small Business 

15. The Use of Korean Small Business by U.S. Capital 

16. The Making of Immigrant Small Business 


PART FIVE CONCLUSION

17. The Costs of Immigrant Entrepreneurship


Appendix: Telephone Survey, 1977

Notes

References

Index

About the author

Ivan Light is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Edna Bonacich is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside.