On a main street in Lima, Peru, restaurants proudly display their traditional fare: ceviche, lomo saltado, ají de gallina. Beneath fragrant smells of roasting chicken and frying vegetables, however, light wafts of something suspiciously similar to soy sauce lurks. Although bizarre to tourists, Chifa restaurants, which sell Chinese-Peruvian fusion food, have become one of the most common restaurants in Peru.
What explains this distinct cultural combination? Stefania Paladini, an expert in Asian-Latin American from the Department of Business and Strategy at Coventry University, promises the reader answers in her new book, Asian Worlds in Latin America. In it, she attempts to present an outlook on Asian presence in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) from a geopolitical and economic standpoint.
While the exchange of people between the three Asian countries that Paladini focuses on—China, Japan, and Korea—have been occurring for centuries, only recently have they begun pouring money into the LAC region. While these investments take several forms, they all give Asian companies and governments increasing influence with Latin American governments, communities’ natural resources, and countries’ development plans.
Asian countries investing in resource-rich developing states isn’t new. China is now Africa’s top economic partner, but the relationship has yielded mixed results. Researchers found that China’s investment in Africa hurt Chinese migrant workers and African workers alike through poor pay and low safety standards. Chinese firms’ environmental practices have also been scrutinized.
Scholars have thoroughly explored questions about the effects of Asian investment in Africa. The impacts of these investments in Latin America and the Caribbean are far less studied. This book promised to fill some of these gaps in the literature.
Paladini brings some fascinating information and situations to light. In Nicaragua, a Hong Kong-based company has inked a deal to build a shipping canal worth four times the Central American country’s GDP. Ten percent of Guatemalan exports depend on the economic activity of Koreans in the country. A South Korean firm has signed an agreement with the government of Ecuador for US$260 million to build a mega-oil refinery in Ecuador. An average of two free trade agreements have gone into effect between Asia and LAC each year since 2004.
The author uses these examples to show how Korean, Japanese, and Chinese interests and investments in Latin America are changing the continent. What she doesn’t do is take the next step to answer the whys, hows, and effects of the Asian presence.
Paladini is at her most interesting when she reflects on Asian immigrants integrating into LAC countries. In looking at the number of immigrants from the three Asian giants to specific LAC countries, she shows another way that exchange across the Pacific has happened for centuries with little fanfare. The Chinese diaspora began arriving in LAC in the 1800s, when demand for low-wage labor was high. Japanese immigrants arrived in great numbers after WWII; Brazil is now home to the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan. Korean immigrants began coming to the LAC region relatively recently, but have already begun to have a big cultural impact on the region’s youth with K-pop music.
After she made a point of explaining the history of cultural exchange between the regions, I expected Paladini to link this to the foreign direct investment trends she highlights. For instance, how might chifa restaurants in Peru facilitate Chinese firms’ entry into communities? Are Guatemalans more likely to accept Korean businesses when there is already a Korean family living next door? Unfortunately, Paladini doesn’t complete her own analysis, and I was left with more questions than answers from her deep dive into statistics on immigration and its history.
Repetition and basic spelling and grammatical errors largely overshadowed what informative content the book had to offer. I was frequently distracted from Paladini’s main points by issues such as spelling the former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori’s name no fewer than three different ways throughout the book (Fujimari, Fujimory and then finally the correct Fujimori).
While there were some interesting facts concealed within the pages of this book, the net effect was unimpressive. As most scholarship around foreign direct investment focuses on the continent of Africa, I was looking forward to new insights on the LAC region. To prevent problematic relationships like those between Africa and Asia from reoccurring in LAC, the field requires more research to shed light on the effects of Asian investment in Latin America.