Immigrant Survey : L.A. Top Choice for Koreans in Business in U.S.

Korean immigrants are more entrepreneurial than other recent arrivals in the United States, devote more time to their businesses and have made Los Angeles the capital of Korean business in the United States.

Those are some of the findings in an upcoming book on Korean immigrants, who began arriving in large numbers in the mid 1970s. And by 1982, Los Angeles led the nation in the number of Korean companies, accounting for 25% of all Korean firms in the United States.

“They are doing quite well,” said UCLA sociology professor Ivan Light, co-author of the book, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs--Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982,” to be published early next year by University of California Press.

About a third of all Korean businesses in Los Angeles County are located in Koreatown, located generally along Olympic Boulevard between Western and Vermont avenues, the authors said. Korean firms in Los Angeles averaged gross sales of $115,000 in 1982, according to the book, compared to the national average of $84,000.

Tops the Table

According to the 1980 Census, 13.5% of all Koreans were self-employed--the largest proportion of any immigrant group. The authors found that Korean firms have focused on the retail or service industries, such as gasoline stations, markets, wig and liquor stores, often employing mostly family members and friends.

Sometimes lacking the English language skills to land a job at large firms, Koreans have traveled down the entrepreneurial path to secure income, the authors said. They devote 20% more time to their businesses than other self-employed individuals. Another incentive to be your own boss: Self-employed Koreans tend to make more money than their peers who work for others, Light found.

The Korean immigrants--many attracted by the U.S.’s higher living standards and political stability--are better prepared to succeed than earlier waves of Asian immigrants, said Edna Bonacich, a UC Riverside sociology professor and co-author of the book. “They are more likely to come with money,” says Bonacich of the immigrants, many of whom left behind professional jobs . “They are more sophisticated, educated and have more skills” than previous immigrants, many of whom came from poorer, rural areas.

The Koreans tap fellow immigrants for information on what types of shops are most profitable, how to run them and how much to pay for existing businesses, says Light. When it comes to looking for a loan, many Koreans turn to a kye --an informal credit association composed of immigrants who pool their money.

But for all their hard work, the Korean entrepreneurs earned only 93% of what non-Koreans earned, said Light. “They work a little bit harder,” he said, but “they make a little bit less.”

Koreans shopkeepers, many of whom have set up stores in low-income, minority communities, sometimes have drawn the ire of longtime residents.

“There is a widespread feeling in the black community that the Koreans pose an obstacle to them,” said Light. But Light said he found no evidence that Korean businesses had affected the rate of black self-employment and income.