The growth of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in Chicago

The growth of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in Chicago is a product of three interacting factors: employment opportunities in the general labour market, resource mobilization, and business opportunity structures. Because of their language barrier and less transferable education and occupational skills in the American labour market, many Korean immigrants could not find white‐collar occupations for which they had been trained. Disadvantaged, but still strongly motivated for upward economic mobility in the United States, many of them became self‐employed business owners. Korean immigrants’ middle‐class backgrounds and their stable family structures and strong family ties helped them to realize their goal of business ownership. In addition, social networks based on kinship, friendship, church membership, and school ties provided prospective business owners with financial assistance, training, business advice, and information about business opportunities. The first business opportunities for Korean immigrants of Chicago opened in Korean ethnic markets and non‐ethnic minority markets almost simultaneously in the early 1970s. While the demand of Koreans for their cultural products created an economic niche for Korean‐oriented businesses, the export‐import trade linkage between South Korea and the United States has paved the way for the entrance of Korean businesses into minority areas. Because of different economic niches, the two types of Korean businesses developed independently. The interethnic succession of residence, which had occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s also produced vacated business opportunities in Koreatown and black neighbourhoods, enabling Korean immigrants to enter these areas without great resistance from local businesses. After Korean immigrants had accumulated capital and experience in Korean ethnic markets and minority markets, they advanced into more capital‐intensive businesses like garment manufacturing. Korean immigrant professionals began to enter the Korean ethnic economy in the early 1980s when the foundation of the Korean ethnic economy was already established.