By: Jing Yang, contributing intern (@jing5233) American citizens are not perplexed by Asian immigrants. Asian-owned restaurants, cloths shops, and nail stores seem to be everywhere in the United States. Walk around Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Korea town or Little Saigon, people will see hundreds of small shops and businesses selling everything from traditional Asian food and ethnic music to makeup and flowers. Since the 1980’s, Asian immigrants became one of the most important members of immigration in United States. At the end of 2014, Asian immigration has reached 12.8 million, and share 3- percent of the nation’s 42.4 million immigrants. Comparing to immigrants from other countries, Asian immigrants are more likely to own their own business. Among all the people in the U.S. who become self-employed, 11 percent of them are Asians, second to whites which take 12.8 percent. Moreover, according to the 2000 Census 5% Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS), “Foreigner-raised Asians (those who immigrated to the U.S. at age 13 or older) are much more likely to be self-employed than U.S.-raised Asians (those who are either U.S.-born or who immigrated to the U.S. before age 13—the “1.5” generation).” Now, the question becomes, why do so many Asian immigrants open up their own business in the United States? And why it seems to be relatively easier for Asian immigrants to get business loans than others? 12.8 million Asian immigrants possess a huge commercial potential to every business. Asian immigrants know what they need clearly, and they can satisfy their requirements as well, so why not start their own business? In some places of America, the Asian population is concentrated. Three states: California, New York, and Texas have taken up 49 percent of Asian immigrants. And from 2009 to 2013, the top four cities Asian immigrants are most likely to live are Los Angeles, Santa Clara, Orange County, California and Queens, New York. The number of people that live in those cities accounted for approximately 21 percent of the total Asian immigrant population in the U.S. all together. Those cities have the largest number of Asian immigrants, and they also have the most comprehensive Asian commercial circle. The Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners: Asian-Owned Firms: 2012 (released in Dec. 2015) provides data that says Asian businesses generated $699.4 billion in revenue (up 148% from 2002), employed more than 3.6 million people and supported payrolls totaling $110.5 billion. Therefore, Asian small businesses are very profitable. I have been to California during this spring break, and visited Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Korea town in Los Angeles. Frankly speaking, I was very happy when I was there because of the Asian food, Asian style shop decoration, and Asian supermarkets, everything was so Asian, and made me feel safe and comfortable. Although the street construction and shop design are kind of different from the real Asian cities, but Asian immigrants that live there still have a feeling like being home. For Asian immigrants, they are relatively higher educated than other immigrants, they also possess more ethnic resources and class resources, which help them to set up their own business. Asian immigrant owners are interested in opening their businesses within their own ethnic community because “their traditions of working hard, delaying material gratification and sacrificing of the next generation.” Many Asian businesses rely on using family members, relatives and other workers in their ethnic groups, so that they can get much cheaper labor. Ethnic groups can also offer them informal saving and loan arrangements, and assist them to build a loyal customer network among the groups. According to Structural Opportunities, for some self-employed shops, the real owners are still upper-class Whites. They don’t want to deal with Black or Latino working-class customers for some reasons, so they “use” Asian to serve as a “buffer zone.” That can also explain the reason why Asian immigrants are relatively easier to get jobs in small businesses. In conclusion, I think the vital important element for Asian immigrant businesses to win such a huge amount of market is their “Americanized” attitudes. Their Americanized behavior, sincere attitude serve to make it easier for them to better integrate into their community as well as this country.
