In a lecture Thursday, guest speaker Thomas Tseng addressed the rise of immigrant business owners and entrepreneurs and their economic contributions to Los Angeles in the present and future.
The UCLA School of Public Affairs hosted the lecture, in which the successes and challenges facing these immigrant entrepreneurs were discussed.
Tseng, principal and co-founder of New American Dimensions, a marketing research and consulting firm, shared his insight on the prevalence of immigrant-owned businesses in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles.
“L.A. is virtually the capital of ethnic and minority businesses in the country and there is nothing like it in the world, and that bodes well for marketing this region’s economy,” Tseng said.
Tseng said Los Angeles has the largest number of Hispanic and Asian businesses in the nation, with over 188,000 Hispanic businesses and over 140,000 Asian businesses in the L.A. area.
Approximately 11.5 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born and close to 70 percent of the country’s growth is attributable to immigrants or children of immigrants, Tseng said.
Tseng said some indicators of the success of immigrant businesses include participation in professional trade and industry associations and events, the use of up-to-date technology, market expansion beyond the bounds of their communities and the level of their utilization of business assistance.
Barbara Nelson, dean of the UCLA School of Public Affairs, said the lecture was part of the Senior Fellows Program, which annually invites about 10 leaders from the private and public sectors who have made a mark with their leadership and planning.
“It’s been a pleasure because (Tseng) is an alum as well as a very successful business person whose business is about a socially important process, which is the economic integration of immigrants into a successful American experience,” Nelson said.
Tseng said many minority businesses have evolved from niche to mainstream businesses.
“Chinese food is not just another ethnic curiosity, but it’s just another dining option which is available now,” Tseng said.
Kenny Yee, a local business owner, attended the lecture and said many of the topics discussed applied to him and his work. Yee said his food-manufacturing firm also transitioned from one that catered primarily to a certain demographic in the community to a business which expanded to the greater community.
“You can’t necessarily say that this was strategically planned. … A while back, it was pretty much clear and understood that we would have to take our business into the major arena,” Yee said.
Tseng said one of the challenges to immigrant businesses is that many first-generation business owners face a linguistic and cultural barrier, but that is not a challenge their children will have to face.
“There is definitely much prevalence among the second generation to cross over and hit the mainstream,” he said.
Another challenge is that many immigrants come from countries where less value is given to marketing, branding and research, Tseng said.
Tseng recommended advocating to the government for the integration of immigrant businesses into Southern California’s overall economic-developmental strategy by providing them with business services, such as helping local immigrant-run businesses export their products beyond their local region.
Tseng said though Los Angeles is often known for being very diverse, dialogue regarding ethnicity tends to center on immigration status rather than the contributions various ethnic groups have made to the economy.
“It’s never spoken about in terms of what these groups are contributing economically in terms of to the fabric of this economy,” Tseng said. “If you look at the numbers, it’s unavoidable. Ethnic groups and entrepreneurs are a big factor in the economy here in L.A.”