THE GROWTH OF KOREAN IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN CHICAGO

The growth of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in Chicago is a produc t of three interacting factors: employment opportunities in the genera l labour market, resource mobilization, and business opportunity struc tures. Because of their language barrier and less transferable educati on 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 e conomic mobility in the United States, many of them became self-employ ed business owners. Korean immigrants' middle-class backgrounds and th eir stable family structures and strong family ties helped them to rea lize their goal of business ownership. In addition, social networks ba sed on kinship, friendship, church membership, and school ties provide d prospective business owners with financial assistance, training, bus iness advice, and information about business opportunities. The first business opportunities for Korean immigrants of Chicago opened in Kore an ethnic markets and non-ethnic minority markets almost simultaneousl y in the early 1970s. While the demand of Koreans for their cultural p roducts 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 b usinesses developed independently. The interethnic succession of resid ence, which had occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s also produc ed vacated business opportunities in Koreatown and black neighbourhood s, enabling Korean immigrants to enter these areas without great resis tance from local businesses. After Korean immigrants had accumulated c apital and experience in Korean ethnic markets and minority markets, t hey advanced into more capital-intensive businesses like garment manuf acturing. Korean immigrant professionals began to enter the Korean eth nic economy in the early 1980s when the foundation of the Korean ethni c economy was already established.