The Middleman Minority Characteristics of Korean Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

This paper examines the middleman minority characteristics of Korean immigrants

in the United States. Like middleman groups in other societies, Korean immigrants in the United States are heavily concentrated in small business. A large proportion of Korean-owned businesses distribute merchandise to minority customers on behalf of large corporations. Korean merchants, like other middleman groups, maintain strong ethnic cohesion, which facilitates their commercial activities. Many of their black customers believe that Korean merchants are clannish and overly money-oriented, two stereotypes that are commonly applied to middleman minorities. Korean merchants have not encountered overt hostility from the general population, however Korean merchants in black neighborhoods have been the victims of physical violence, boycotts, arson, looting, and press attacks. Black hostility toward Korean merchants climaxed during the 1992 Los Angeles race riots in which 2,300 Korean stores were destroyed. Based on these analyses, we conclude that Korean immigrants in the United States exhibit middleman minority characteristics.