Korean Americans in New York City

As of the 2011 American Community Survey, New York City is home to 100,000 ethnic Koreans, with two-thirds living in the borough of Queens. On the other hand, the overall Greater New York Combined Statistical Area enumerated 218,764 Korean American residents as of the 2010 United States Census, the second largest population of Koreans outside of Korea.

Mass Korean immigration to the United States began in the 1950s, with a large wave occurring over the 1960s and 1970s. Koreans historically came to the New York City area with the intention of permanently settling there and establishing businesses. Originally ethnic Koreans settled inner city neighborhoods in Manhattan and Queens, but beginning in the 1980s wealthier Koreans began moving to suburban communities in northern New Jersey and Westchester County, New York. Many ethnic Koreans moved into areas already settled by Japanese persons. By 1988 there were about 150,000 ethnic Koreans living in the New York City area.

According to an investigation by The New York Times in 2015, abuse by Korean nail salon owners in New York City and Long Island was rampant, with 70 to 80% of nail salon owners in New York being Korean, per the Korean American Nail Salon Association; with the growth and concentration in the number of salons in New York City far outstripping the remainder of the United States since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Abuses routinely included underpayment and non-payment to employees for services rendered, exacting poor working conditions, and stratifying pay scales and working conditions for Korean employees above non-Koreans.

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