Abstract

Ethnic economies change over time. Generally, it is believed that in the beginning, because immigrants do not possess sufficient class resources, immigrants utilize ethnic resources more, and later—once class resources are formed—they tend to utilize more class resources. In generational terms, because the younger generation face lower linguistic and cultural barriers they might arguably leave ethnic economies behind and enter the mainstream economy. However, the ethnic economy in São Paulo displays a different picture. Second-generation Koreans are still involved in the ethnic economy and the resource utilization pattern is not a simple linear progression from ethnic to class. Based on these observations, this research aims to analyze how the Korean ethnic economy in São Paulo has changed over time in terms of resource utilization patterns and attempts to interpret the change within the context of Brazil as a Global South country. The fieldwork revealed that unlike other cases of ethnic economies, ethnic resources are reutilized in a different form and the issues of informality and trade protectionism that are prevalent in the Global South are related to the change in the Korean ethnic economy.