Discuss the contribution made by the new Asian and longer established Mexican migration, in the shaping of immigrant enterprise in Los Angeles.
For the purposes of this essay I shall be concentrating mainly on the Los Angeles Garment industry as this is an area of manufacturing highly represented by new Asian immigrants, especially Koreans and longer established Mexican immigrants, many of whom are working illegally. We will also be focusing on the garment industry as it is also one of the largest industries in the Los Angeles area. But we will also be taking into account the affect Vietnamese, Chinese and other Asian' groups have had on the shaping of other elements of immigrant enterprise in Los Angeles. We must also bear in mind that many immigrant Asians occupy professional positions within banking, medicine and computers.
The garment industry is one of the major international industries, with most countries in the world involved in it at some level, because of the incredibly cheap production costs in many of these countries apparel production is shifting from the developed to the developing countries. Consequently, the United States, which houses a vast garment industry, is facing fierce competition from the abundance of cheap goods these mostly third world countries export . In response to this, American manufacturers have moved much of their production abroad to countries such as Mexico, where the labour costs are a fraction of those at home, for example the clothing giant Guess moved 70% of its production to Mexico in 1997 . Mexico has now outstripped China as the major exporter of apparel goods to the United States. Although they have most of their apparel goods produced abroad, the US manufacturers still retain control of ordering, marketing and distribution. It is interesting to see that there is a parallel in the increase in US imports paired to a decline in employment in the home apparel industry.