Looking at the Other through the Eye of a Needle: Korean Garment Businesses and Inter-Ethnic Relations in Argentina

Abstract

The Argentinean garment industry has evolved into a dynamic and complex inter-ethnic environment wherein ethnic Koreans, while conducting their businesses, have established a particular set of inter-ethnic relations with other minority groups. This research aims to explore the types of relations that Korean immigrants have established with Jews and Bolivians, through the analysis of the perceptions and stereotypes which Koreans explicitly hold vis-à-vis Jews and Bolivians. The research shows that a number of factors, such as hierarchical labour relations, economic inequalities, business competition and conflict, and other cultural practices, have been involved in the processes of shaping and reshaping the Korean relations with other minority groups. This study further argues that discourses emphasising “racial” differentiation as well as generalised images and stereotypes of “others” have unfortunately helped generate and harden prejudices and discrimination.