Changing the Landscape of an American Town: Immigrantrification of a Korean Ethnoburb and Its Cultural and Economic Consequences

Abstract

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.