Ethnic solidarity in a divided community: A study on bridging organizations in Koreatown

Although theorists have come to recognize the continuing significance of ethnic political solidarity for black and Latino groups, there have been few studies that have analyzed how post-1965 Asian immigrant communities are able to sustain ethnic political solidarity amid increasing generational cleavages, class polarization, and residential sprawl. This inattention to the social dynamics of Asian American politics may partly be attributed to both the relative recent emergence of most post-1965 Asian American communities and the political inactivity of those Asian Americans who preceded them because of historical disenfranchisement and discrimination, cultural and linguistic barriers, electoral divisions, and negative experiences with politics in the ancestral homeland. However, the potential impact of Asian American political activity and influence has become particularly clear in recent decades with the slow but inevitable emergence of Asian American politicians, the growing importance of Asian and Asian American financial contributions to politicians, and the proliferation of Asian American community-based organizations and activities across the nation. At the same time, new patterns of residential settlement among select post- 1965 immigrants have raised questions about the overall capacity of ethnic communities to cultivate ethnic political solidarity in the current era. In particular, the possibility of maintaining ethnic political solidarity without residential concentration has become particularly poignant, considering the rapid pace at which Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian American groups have achieved socioeconomic mobility and spread out into diverse residential settings. While there is growing literature on the role of mainstream politics in shaping the development and political integration of immigrant organizations into the host society, relatively few works have looked at political organizations, relationships, and inequality within ethnic opportunity structures. In this light, ethnic community-based organizations may better help us to understand what happens with generational transitions in political leadership. Ethnic organizations led by American-raised/American-born ethnic constituencies, or the so-called 1.5/second generation, provide a compelling case with which to study the dynamics of ethnic political solidarity for two reasons: because of their intermediary role between the immigrant community and mainstream society; and because such organizations provide one of the few institutional spaces where younger generations can find a developed sense of ethnic political identity, a vehicle to act upon their political beliefs, and a means to network with the ethnic community despite residential dispersal. The general objective of my research is to examine the different strategies that ethnic organizations among the native-born Korean American generation use to create a sense of ethnic political solidarity among their constituents despite the community's increasing residential dispersion, class disparities, and ideological differences. To this end, I discuss how traditional assimilationist theories have conceptualized ethnic solidarity in a way that underestimates the ability of nonprofit organizations to accommodate the shifting demographics of new ethnic communities through institutional consolidation and diversification. The next section describes how the introduction of mainstream support changed Korean American political structures such that the fate of 1.5/second generation ethnic organizations became intertwined with immigrant power-holders despite increasing tensions and resource competition. However, intergenerational dependency means that bridging organizations must also negotiate their political agenda within traditional ethnic hierarchies-a process that lays the basis for diverse organizational frameworks of ethnic political solidarity. In this light, the third section takes a closer look at how two specific Korean American organizations in the upper and lower tiers of ethnic power structures have come up with distinct political frameworks for organizing and mobilizing 1.5 and second generation subgroups based on differential relations with immigrant power-holders. The final section discusses the implications of this organizational specialization and diversity on ethnic political solidarity among the 1.5/second generation leadership.