This study focuses on the social, cultural, and physical transformations—referred to as immigrantrification (gentrification by immigrants)—initiated by Korean immigrants in Palisades Park, a well-known Koreatown in New Jersey, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. It draws on data collected from ethnographic field research conducted in 2019–2020, including 67 interviews. Gentrification initiated as a profitable investment strategy of middle-class, entrepreneurial Korean immigrants has followed the town’s revitalization brought about by the population and economic growth and the expansion of amenities during the establishment of the Korean ethnoburb. While many residents complain about overcrowding, pollution, land-use intensity, and parking problems, Guatemalan immigrants—active participants in labor-intensive gentrification who have established their sub-enclave, gradually supplanting White residents—express fear of being priced out of the immigrantrified town. Thus, this study addresses two issues underrepresented in the gentrification discourse — third-world immigration and ethnic minority gentrification — by expanding the research on Korean gentrifiers.

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Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the intricate relationships between three major ethno-racial groups residing in a suburban town in the New York metropolitan area. At the present time, the prosperous Korean ethnoburb is gentrified by Korean immigrants, triggering the displacement of the old-timers, referred to as the “White exodus” in this research. Granted that the cheap labor is in high demand in the rejuvenating neighborhood, the town has become a magnet for Guatemalan immigrants who have established their own ethnic islet in the vicinity. While the relationships between the Asian immigrants and the White old-timers generated by invasion-succession trends are full of resentment, the work-related interactions between the Asian and Hispanic (mostly Guatemalan) immigrants can be described as immigrant symbiosis. Both groups are aware of explicit exploitation, but they need and rely on each other to attain their own “American dream.”

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