Ethnic Entrepreneurship in the Transborder Region: Korean Immigrant Businesses on the US–Mexico Border

• In Event: 30425 - New Forms of Transnationalism in Action

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the conditions that create and maintain what I call the “transborder ethnic economy,” focusing on the case of Korean immigrant entrepreneurs in the US-Mexico border region. Based on analyses of data collected from ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews, I describe the structure of the transborder ethnic economy around Korean multinational corporations and explore how the specificity of immigrants’ ethnicity and the border region context fostered the development of the transborder ethnic economy, which encompasses three sectors: core manufacturing, related services, and auxiliary businesses. The findings show that Korean immigrants find entrepreneurial opportunities based on shared values about work and performance expectations or ethnic tastes and needs. In the transborder context, Korean immigrants who are knowledgeable with languages and bureaucratic infrastructures in both the United States and Mexico find business opportunities or work with investors. They who accumulated specialized skillsets can meet the demands from co-ethnics, edging out local non-co-ethnic competitions.

Author

• Minjeong Kim, San Diego State University