User:Hyoongyung
From The Peopling of New York City
Ghettos and Enclaves
Koreans
Koreans came to the United States in generally four waves. The first wave included the approximately 7,200 Koreans who settled in Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations between 1903 and 1905. Many made the move in order to gain religious freedom and a chance at a better economic life. This wave was stifled, however, by the Japanese due to the fear of competition between Korean migrant workers and Japanese migrant workers in Hawaii. The Japanese government “pressured the Korean government to stop sending labor migrants to the United States” (Min 175). Also, between 1905 and 1924, “2,000 additional Koreans came to Hawaii and California (Min 175), of which the majority came as picture brides of pioneer bachelor immigrants. The other part of this group came as political refugees and students who supported the anti-Japanese independence movement. While most of the students stayed in the States permanently, the political refugees who sought freedom in America moved back to Korea post-1945 when Korea won its independence from Japan. Syng-Man Lee, the first President of South Korea, is the main example of the group of students within the first wave of immigrants who received a Ph. D. degree in theology from Princeton University.
The second wave of Korean immigrants came during and after the Korean War. As Min cites, “the close military, political, and economic connections between the United States and South Korea led to increased immigration” (Min 175). The majority of these 15,000 Koreans (arriving between 1950 and 1964) were made up of women who married “U.S. servicemen stationed in South Korea and Korean orphans adopted by American citizens” (Min 175). Although thousands of Korean immigrated to the United States, the population of the group was still considered negligible in 1970 (69,000 Koreans) as opposed to the 1990 figure of 790,000 Koreans; and by 2000, there were well over one million Koreans living in the United States.
The third wave of immigrants included professionals who came to the States in order to seek better opportunities. Korean medical professionals held family practices “in low-income minority neighborhoods that were not attractive to native-born whites” (Min 177). The other group included in the third wave of Korean immigrants was made up of Korean foreign students studying to pursue professional or managerial jobs. Unfortunately, due to the economic recession in the early 1970s, the U.S. government revised the 1965 Immigration Act to limit the entry of occupational immigrants in general. According to Min, “[t]he Health Professional Educational Act of 1976 required that foreign physicians and surgeons first had to pass the National board of Medical Examinees’ examination or its equivalent and foreign-language test to gain admission to the United States” (Min 177); the revision of this law made it more difficult for immigrants to come to the United States in search of professional jobs. Korean immigrants were, however, able to avoid this obstacle by relying on their relatives who had already become naturalized citizens to invite them to the United States for permanent residence. As the economic and political situation in Korea improved, the better-off Koreans tended to stay within their country. The end of the Cold War lessened tension between North and South Korea. Citing the need to provide “a better opportunity for children’s education”, the working-class of Korea sought to move to the United States (Min 178).
Koreans in New York City tended to settle in Queens, especially Bayside, Little Neck, Douglaston, Flushing, Woodside, and Elmhurst/Corona. These areas also have attracted many Chinese immigrants because Koreans and Chinese share similarities in culture, physical characteristics, and socioeconomic status between the two groups.
The fourth wave of Korean immigrants came in pursuit of professional jobs, but was thwarted due to their lack of proficiency in English and the lack of recognition of their professional certificates. Although Korean immigrants felt that “running a small business is a step down from their occupations in Korea”, they soon became prominent in the “middle-man minority role” (Min 181, 180).
Interestingly enough, the church is the most important ethnic organization in the Korean-American community. Christianity did not spread to Korea until the end of the eighteenth century when French missionaries introduced Roman Catholicism to Korea; a century later, American missionaries brought Protestantism to Korea by “establishing Christian schools and hospitals” (Min 185). Christianity did not become popular until the 1950s because the “Christian religious faiths and rituals collided with ancestor worship, the core of Confucian customs” (Min 185); the oppressive Japanese government also repressed the practice of the Christian religion. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Christianity became more influential simultaneously with economic growth in South Korea. The church is now such a strong establishment within the Korean-American community in the United States that even “non-Christian Korean immigrants, including Buddhists, participate in Korean churches as the latter have become the Korean community centers” (Min 185); more than a religious center, the church serves as a site of Korean immigrants’ social gatherings.