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.Although, it would be useful to discuss theheterogeneity of Asian American self-employment in order to develop appro-priate policy for different types of self-employment, much of the data on self-employment is not broken down in these ways.In general, Asian American businesses are smaller compared to average busi-nesses in the United States.In 2002, average sales per Asian American firmwere $296,001 compared with the average sales receipts for all businesses of$983,852.The average number of employees in Asian American firms withemployees was seven, with an average payroll per employee of $25,314 com-pared with twenty workers per firm and $34,418 per employer for all firms withemployees in the United States.4Similar to the diversity in self-employment rates, the sizes of AsianAmerican businesses vary considerably by Asian American group.AsianIndian and Chinese have the greatest number of firms with largest sales.In2002, there were 223,212 Asian Indian firms with sales of $88 billion.Chinesefirms in 2002 numbered 286,041 with sales of $105 billion.Korean (157,688firms with sales of $47 billion), Vietnamese (147,036 firms, $15.5 billion),Filipino (125,146 firms, $14 billion), and Japanese (86,910 firms, $30 billion)businesses followed. Economy and Work 159Asian American businesses are also concentrated in a few sectors of theeconomy.A third of Asian American firms are in food-related or service-relatedindustries.Retail firms, professional and technical firms, and health-relatedfirms each account for about one-eighth of all Asian American firms.Self-employment does provide Asian Americans with significant earnings.AsianAmerican self-employment earnings are slightly lower than self-employmentearnings of non-Latino whites.Again, data from the 2000 Census calculated theself-employment earnings of non-Latino whites to be $53,244 in 1999 and$52,805 for Asians.For comparison, nonwhite Latino earnings were $38,225and African-American earnings, $35,006.5With the decrease in the percentage of self-employment among AsianAmerican groups and the relative size of Asian American businesses, there area number of public policy issues that are pertinent to Asian Americans andContributing in Big WaysCompared with any other Asian American subgroup, Korean immigrantshave the highest percentage of small business owners.Many decide tobecome small business owners because of the racial discrimination, lan-guage barriers, and the inability to transfer their education and credentialsfrom Korea to the mainstream labor market.Through long hours, family sacrifices, and hard work, Korean immigrantsmall business owners not only have made a living to support their families,but they also have provided contributions to American society.Here aresome unique strengths and notable achievements of Korean immigrant smallbusiness owners:" Korean immigrants use informal family and friend networks to get start-up funds.Also known as a kye, a rotating credit system in whichfriends and family pool money so the funds can be rotated." Willingness to open up businesses in low-income, racial/ethnic minorityneighborhoods." Korean immigrants have used unpaid family labor to help them with thefamily business." Korean immigrant small business owners are represented in service-ori-ented businesses such as drycleaners and grocery stores." Korean immigrant small business owners make major contributions toU.S.economy through taxes and their hard work." More than 90,000 Korean immigrants own a small business." Annual gross income for Korean immigrant small businesses is 4.3 billion. Grace J.Yoo 160 Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Todayself-employment.Prominent are issues of financing Asian American smallbusinesses, rate of failures, minority set-asides in contracting, and workingconditions.Financing is an important issue for self-employment and Asian Americanbusinesses.Access to financial resources allows individuals to start, continue,and expand businesses.In general, minority access to borrowing has been amajor constraint in developing minority businesses.For Asian Americans inparticular, loan applications for small businesses were more likely to be denied,even after controlling for the creditworthiness of the application.6Failure rates of Asian American businesses are related to the financingproblem.Some Asian American business ventures are undercapitalized, makingthem highly subject to failure during economic downturns, as they are unableto weather even a short term economic slowdown.7 In addition to financingproblems, Asian American businesses are concentrated in sectors of theeconomy personal services, food services, etc. that are characterized withhigher failure rates compared to other business sectors.In the period immediately following the civil rights movements of the 1960s,the federal government and many state and local governments set up minority set-aside contracting programs to provide affirmative action for minority businesses.Many of these programs were targeted to assist minority construction firms.Alarge body of research suggests that these set-asides did work for African Amer-icans, although there has been little study on Asian American firms.Most of theseprograms, however, were dismantled during the 1990s.8 The U.S.SupremeCourt s decision in City of Richmond v.J.A.Croson Co., in 1989, was the begin-ning of a series of challenges to minority set-asides in governmental contracts.Inrecent years, some set-aside programs were re-established based on some evi-dence of past or current discrimination in municipal contracting.9Finally, there is concern over the wages and working conditions of someAsian American owned businesses.Some Asian American owned businesses,such as restaurants and garment shops, are in industries that have a history ofpaying low wages and providing poor working conditions.Some argue thatthese Asian American businesses allow business owners to exploit non-Englishspeaking recent immigrants who have little political and social voice or eco-nomic alternatives.Self-employment and small businesses continue to be important features ofAsian American economic adaptation in the United States [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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