Dae Young Kim’s Beyond Co-ethnic Solidarity: Mexican and Ecuadorean Employment in Korean-Owned Businesses in New York City explains the relationship of co-ethnic employer and co-ethnic employees and how gradually, the employment by independent self-employed Korean businesses started to change.  Kim explains that since the 1970s, there has been an increase in self-employment rate. According to the reading, the 1990 US Census data showed the self-employment rate for Koreans to be estimated at 35 percent. Koreans were forced to turn to self-employment mainly because of language barrier. To find workers and employers who were trustworthy, the Korean immigrants had to turn to other Koreans for help.

I could relate my dad and the company he works for to this reading. Similarly, my dad and his brother in law are also engaged in co-ethnic employment. My uncle already settled in the United States and established his own ATM business (self-employment) and because he was looking for co-ethnic labor, my dad was able to get the job pretty easily.

This ethnic solidarity had both its ups and downs. At first, co-ethnic employers and employees were both benefitting from this trade. The employers found cheap labor that was willing to over-work. However, soon, these employees established their own businesses that soon turned into competition. For Koreans, working for these independent Korean companies was just a temporary measure. They also soon wanted to establish their own store after the “business training” from other companies.

Since the 1980s, with more independent businesses and less Korean immigrants, co-ethnic labor was scarce along with the increase in cost. This resulted in search for another type of labor force for the Korean employers. According to one of the interviews in the reading, Holiday Cleaners’ owner mentions, “Mexicans were employed because it became a big burden to employ Koreans”. Korean employees expected special treatment just because they were Koreans while the Mexicans were willing to work for smaller amount of money. Because the employers could hire two or three decent Mexican workers for the price of a Korean worker, they couldn’t resist but hire them for certain types of jobs. Kim also predicts that Mexican and Ecuadorean employment is going to continue to increase.