|
Koreatown is a term to describe the Korean ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area.
Main article: Koreatown, Toronto
Toronto's primary Korea Town is located on Bloor Street, roughly between Bathurst and Christie Streets.
The major Korean shopping enclave is located along North Road, on the border between Burnaby and Coquitlam. Other important Korean commercial areas include Kingsway in Vancouver and Robson Street in the West End.
During the 1910 to 1945 colonial period, particularly during World War II, Japan forcibly imported approximately 2.4 million Koreans to work as laborers. While most departed after the war, many chose to remain in hopes of better economic prospects. Today, Koreans, or the zainichi chosenjin, are the largest ethnic minority in Japan, amounting to 620 thousand in 2002. They are a key source of remittances to North Korea.
Main article: Koreatown, Osaka
The Korean enclave in the city of Osaka, numbering over 90,000, is by far the largest in Japan, concentrated in the Ikuno Ward, where 25% of the inhabitans are of Korean origin. Tsuruhasi in the Ward is the most famous Koreatown in Japan. The total Korean population in Osaka prefecture amounted to 150 thousand in 2002.
According to official statistics in 2002, the Korean population in Tokyo amounted to 80 thousand, which was the second largest following that of Osaka.
Unlike other Japanese Koreatowns, the small Korean-oriented commercial district in Shijuku Ward developed after World War II, and is dominated by immigrants who have retained their ethnic identity. Shin-Okubo Station is a famous area for these immigrants.
Approximately 3000 ethnic Koreans live in Kawasaki. Although most have assimilated, it remains one of the largest concentrations of Korean-Japanese in Eastern Japan.
A small Koreatown has developed in the Gion neighborhood (the Geisha district) of Kyoto. Kyoto prefecture is home to approximately 38 thousand ethnic Koreans in 2002.
A small Korean commercial district has developed around Buford Highway in suburban Doraville. However, the area is not exclusively Korean; the area also includes many Chinese and Vietnamese businesses. A second center for ethnic Koreans has recently arisen in the Duluth district. Even here, there are over 45 dialects spoken. Other areas are developing rapidly along South Cobb Drive in Smyrna, the suburb of Norcross, and Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain. Atlanta is home to an estimated 100,000 Asians of all ethnicities, with Koreans being the most widely represented.
Chicago's Koreatown is located along Lawrence Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood on the city's Northwest Side.
A Koreatown can be found in Houston along Gessner north of Interstate 10.
Main article: Koreatown, Los Angeles, California
Founded in the 1970s, the area known as Koreatown in the city of Los Angeles acquired its name from the prevalence of Korean-owned businesses that form the landscape. Much of its resident population is comprised of Asian, Latino, Anglo, African-American and other ethnic groups. Currently, as part of the broader gentrification movment in the Los Angeles inner city, there has been some movement of wealthy Korean Americans from the suburbs and back to the Koreatown. Interestingly, there are also some Russian-speaking ethnic Korean refugees from the former Soviet Union (mainly from Uzbekistan) that congregate in the Koreatown, although adapting to the broader Korean-speaking Korean American community has been challenging.
During the civil unrest in 1992, residents burned and looted many businesses in Koreatown, including those owned by white and blacks.
Several strip mall-based satellite "Koreatowns" have been formed over the years in the Los Angeles suburbs of Buena Park, Cerritos, Garden Grove and Rowland Heights, where middle-class Korean immigrants have settled and where Korean American business owners have relocated.
Main article: Koreatown, Manhattan
The area around Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and 32nd Street in Manhattan has emerged as an enclave of Korean restaurants and businesses. It is this neighborhood, near Herald Square, which is usually named as New York's Koreatown; however, a significant Korean population and commercial center can be found in Queens, especially in neighborhoods such as Elmhurst and Flushing.
A strip of Korean businesses along Telegraph Avenue near the MacArthur BART station has developed into a genuine cultural center for the 60,000-odd ethnic Koreans in the San Francisco Bay Area. The emergence of this area has coincided with urban renewal and gentrification in downtown Oakland, provoking some conflict with the more established African-American population.
A significant number of Korean immigrants and their descendants now live in Bergen County. They are most prevalent in communities such as Fort Lee, Englewood Cliffs, Palisade Park, Cliffside Park, and Edgewater, communities near the NJ side of the George Washington Bridge.
See also
|
