Jihye Kim addresses “the distinguishing characteristic of Koreans in Argentina”: a “longstanding and enduring affinity with the garment industry” (p. 3). By focusing on Koreans in Argentina, Kim's study offers a welcome corrective to the “regional bias” (p. 6) of studies on Korean immigrant entrepreneurship, whose theories and methods have emerged predominantly from the context of the United States. Drawing on the concept of “mixed embeddedness,” Kim takes a mixed-methods approach, analyzing secondary quantitative data alongside qualitative data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in Argentina. From Sweatshop to Fashion Shop is organized roughly chronologically, from the agricultural projects that constituted the first immigration ventures from South Korea to Argentina in the 1960s to the challenges facing Korean Argentine entrepreneurs in the early twenty-first century. This is a durational approach that contrasts with the relatively shorter observational window of previous studies on immigrant entrepreneurship.
Chapter 1 analyzes when and why Koreans moved to Argentina, outlining six phases of Korean immigration to Argentina. Kim points out that in 1965, when official Korean immigration to Argentina began, Argentina's per capita gross domestic product was twelve times that of South Korea, making Argentina an attractive destination for Korean immigrants seeking economic opportunity (p. 24). In 1985, South Korea and Argentina signed an immigration agreement that established an investment visa category for South Koreans, further stimulating emigration. In contrast, a protracted economic crisis from 1998 to 2002 not only slowed the entry of Koreans but led many Korean Argentines to leave the country altogether.
Chapter 2 emphasizes macroeconomic trends in Argentina, tracing how unstable periods of growth and decline led to an “explosion in self-employment” and “the progressive rise of a substantial informal employment sector” (p. 42)—two features that likewise characterize the Argentine garment industry. Political changes—namely, the 1976 Argentine coup d’état and ensuing military dictatorship—are mentioned but not described. Relying primarily on secondary quantitative and historical data, this chapter acts as a bridge between the Argentine macroeconomic environment and the focus on Korean immigrant entrepreneurship that characterizes the next four chapters.
Chapter 3 addresses the “extraordinary bit of serendipity” (p. 54) through which Koreans entered the garment industry in the late 1960s and 1970s. As Koreans moved from Argentina's interior to the capital city of Buenos Aires, they found work as knitting or sewing subcontractors for predominantly Jewish clothing manufacturers. From these humble beginnings, Koreans quickly established garment workshops reliant on shared family labor. The establishment of this ethnic niche depended on “push” factors such as language and cultural barriers as well as “pull” factors such as ethnic networks and relatively low barriers to entry.
Chapter 4 analyzes the “rapid growth and upward mobility” (p. 69) of the Korean garment industry in the 1980s and 1990s. It is in this chapter that the relationship between macroeconomic contexts and micro-level decisions of immigrant entrepreneurs becomes clearer. For example, as is the case for Korean entrepreneurs in other national contexts, Korean Argentines depended on gye, or rotating credit associations, for start-up funds. However, “frequent cyclical economic crises” in Argentina made it “difficult to keep the rotating saving and credit system afloat, because the real value of the funds wildly fluctuated, almost daily” (p. 85). Gye therefore became a source of conflict within the Korean immigrant community, exacerbated by fierce competition from co-ethnic entrepreneurs within the same narrow economic niche.
Chapter 5 focuses on Korean entrepreneurship following the 2001 fiscal crisis and subsequent economic recovery in Argentina. Kim finds that, increasingly, the importance of class resources outweighs ethnic resources among Korean entrepreneurs. She points out that Argentina's “boom” and “bust” cycles also provide opportunity for those “who have enough leverage to overcome difficult economic periods” (p. 133)—that is, those with the financial assets to take advantage of lower rents and decreased costs during crisis episodes. Kim also addresses perceptions that Korean sweatshops rely on illegal business practices and the exploitation of other immigrants, particularly those from Bolivia. In contrast with such stereotypes, Kim cites interview evidence that Bolivian workers prefer to work with Korean owners and vice versa. Kim points out that tax evasion and informal hiring practices are endemic across the entire Argentine garment industry rather than being an ethnospecific feature of Korean business norms. This chapter also cites Korean interviewees who describe Bolivians as submissive, diligent, and hard-working. Such culturalist discourses are reported without much comment. A deeper cultural analysis might show whether this is a perception that is unique to Korean entrepreneurs or whether these stereotypes, like Korean business practices, are shared more broadly in the Argentine garment industry.
Chapter 6 analyzes how Korean Argentines’ generational entrenchment in the garment industry leads to both economic mobility and social marginalization. The literature on Korean immigrant entrepreneurship, which has developed in the context of Global North countries such as the United States, suggests that the children of immigrants rarely stay in ethnic niches, experiencing generational mobility as they select other careers and assimilate into mainstream society. In contrast, 1.5- and second-generation Korean Argentines do not follow this pattern, choosing to continue in the apparel industry. This decision is explained by higher incomes generated by the family business in comparison with the limited opportunities afforded by professional careers in Argentina. However, “their concentration in a specific sector clearly restricted their integration into mainstream society” (p. 162)—that is, Kim's interviewees described ongoing social marginalization of Koreans in Argentina.
As From Sweatshop to Fashion Shop demonstrates, the processes and outcomes of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship are highly dependent on the national social, political, and economic contexts in which migrants operate. Kim's interview data, which features the voices and perspectives of Korean immigrants themselves, speaks to the complexity of immigrant entrepreneurship in Argentina, a country whose recent history has been characterized by economic and political turmoil. Including more ethnographic anecdotes, such as the one featured in the introduction's opening pages, might have provided a richer perspective on this complexity. Still, From Sweatshop to Fashion Shop should be relevant to scholars of Korean diasporas and Asia–Latin America connections as well as those studying ethnic niches, immigrant integration, and migrant labor.
