Globalization, migration and global city hypothesis.

AuthorAltintas, Hakan
PositionReport

Abstract

Outside of population geography, migration as a process driving globalization has remained in the shadows of the literature. Migration has only really been acknowledged by other social scientists tendency in conceptualizing global cities. In this paper, I wish to extent our understanding of globalization and migration by linking together studies of transient professional migration, transnational corporations, and global city financial centers. First, I discuss transient migration as a process in the globalization debate. Second, I review a series of qualitative methods, which have extended our knowledge of globalization and transient professional migration. Third, I illustrate the importance of migration as a globalization tendency, through an analysis of official international migration statistics. Fourth, I respond to general question it has three aims. It redresses lack of focus on the relationship between immigration and the global city hypothesis. It evaluates the global city hypothesis in relation to immigration in primarily Europe's large metropolitan regions. I do this initially by discussing Sassen's thesis, and then follow with an exploration of the subsequent literature that has sprouted from her arguments. I maintain that such a critical analysis of Sassen's ongoing research project and the parallel issues of urban inequality. I call this a "renewal" of the "global city hypothesis."

INTRODUCTION

Globalization is upon us, and we can't escape its unevenness around the world. Geographers, political scientists, sociologists and many others, have been debating the virtues of globalization since the 1990s (e.g. Allen and Hamnett, 1995; Allen and Massey, 1995; Amin and Thrift 1994; Castells, 1996; Cox, 1997; Dicken, 1998; Harvey 1996; Featherstone, 1990; Storper, 1997). For example, Amin and Thrift (1997) point to five globalizing tendencies: (1) globalization of money and financial capital; (2) importance of knowledge-structures as a factor of production; (3) internationalisation of technology; (4) transnational oligopolies; and (5) rise of transnational diplomacy between firms and states.

Work on international and domestic migration, however, has remained almost transparent in globalization tendencies (Lee and Wills, 1997): at both a theoretical and empirical level (but exceptions do include, for example Castles and Miller, 1993; Petras, 1981). We must acknowledge that international migration is a powerful process, and outcome, of the ages of internationalization and globalization, especially when we consider the emotive phenomenon of brain drain. It is widely accepted that brain drain, that is settler migration of professional, scientific, technical and/or post-qualified students, has caused severe leakage of skills and wealth generation, from both developed and developing states, and regional blocks of the world (Cohen, 1996a-b). What remains less identified by nation states and policy strategists in their analyses of brain drain, however, are the flows of temporary, or contracted, professional, scientific and technical migrants, who are not settler migrants, but may move quite often between nation states (Appleyard, 1989). Such professional migrants have been termed 'transients', and remain relatively 'invisible' in studies of both skilled international migration and brain drain (Appleyard, 1985, 1989; Findlay, 1988; Salt and Findlay, 1989).

Importance of transient professional migrants in the world system cannot be underestimated as we attempt to extend our knowledge of brain drain. 'Transient' professional migration has been fuelled by the organizational strategies of transnational corporations. During the last 30 years, economic restructuring, the rise of the new international division of labour and advances in information technology and travel, have all encouraged transnational corporations to fragment and extend their industrial activities offshore, from their host country (Dicken, 1998). Transient professional migrants are increasingly being used by transnational corporations, through Inter-Company Transfers, to manage, fill skill shortages and, or, represent their clients in the localised market (Brewster, 1988; Salt, 1988; Salt and Findlay, 1989), for periods anywhere between one and five years. It is, however, extremely difficult to obtain official data on professional inter-company transfers, especially with the European Union (Salt et al 1994). To obtain reliable data, one has to focus on firm case studies. For example, ABB, the Swiss-Swedish engineering company, had about 500 global managers working outside of their country of origin in 1997 (Financial Times, 1997). Moreover, as Findlay (1990, 15) suggests "Given the circulatory nature of these high level manpower movements, it has been suggested that these migration moves be seen as 'skill exchanges' rather than a 'brain drain.' Observers suggest that transient professional migration has not only accelerated between developing and developed countries, but also between developed states, at increasing rates (Salt, 1995).

It has been left to population geographers to study linkages between globalization and migration. Recently, we may draw on a rich vein of research investigating globalization tendencies in the context of diasporas, transnational communities, gender and international migration (Castles and Miller, 1993; Cohen, 1997; Conway and Cohen 1998; Findlay 1988; Gould and Findlay, 1994; Hardhill and MacDonald, 1998; Wong, 1997). In the context of highly-skilled migration, but beyond discussions of brain drain (Hague and Kim, 1995), an extremely fruitful analysis of globalization and migration has come from studies of 'transient' skilled migration within transnational corporations (TNCs) (Appleyard, 1991; Salt and Findlay, 1989), and especially the work of John Salt (Koser and Salt, 1997; Salt, 1988; 1992). But, transient migration still remains an 'invisible' phenomenon in both an empirical and theoretical sense (Findlay, 1996).

GLOBALIZATION, MIGRATION AND GLOBAL CITIES

Migration has been central to the global city debate. As Friedmann and Wolff (1982, 322-23) and Friedmann (1986, 75), commented respectively: "Transnational elites are the dominant class in the world city, and the city is arranged to cater to their lifestyle and occupational necessities." "The world city hypothesis is about the spatial organization of the new international division of labour ... world cities are points of destination for large numbers of both domestic and/or international migrants." Saskia Sassen, has taken the lead in conceptualising the role of globalization and migrant labour in the global city. In (1988) The Mobility of Capital and Labour, (1991) The Global City and (1994) Cities in a World Economy, and numerous journal articles, she has emphasised rise of the low-waged immigrant sector, supporting the professional elite, as being crucial to global city (re)production (Sassen-Koob, 1986; Sassen, 1987). But, in all her work, Sassen consistently downplays the role of transient professional migrants in global city (re)production: and, thus, continues to reinforce their invisibility with both the global city context, and world-system. Building upon these seminal works, others have begun to investigate different ways migration as a globalization process is (re)producing the global city. Here, of particular importance, has been the collective work of: the Institute of British Geographers Limited Life Working Party on Skilled International Migration (Findlay and Gould, 1989); Beaverstock on world cities and advanced producer services (Beaverstock, 1994); Findlay, Jones, Jowett, Li and Skeldon on Hong Kong (Findlay and Li, 1997; Li, et al 1998); and studies of gender and immigration (Kofman, 1996). With very few exceptions, these studies theorised that migration as an integral globalization process, which has produced new geographies of migration, with respect to both process and pattern.

Transnational Corporations and Transient Migration

The TNC provides an enabling environment for the (re)production of transient professional migration in the world-system. TNCs use transient professional migrants in order to bring human capital and intellectual knowledge to their foreign operations (Beaverstock, 1994; Cormode, 1994; Perkins, 1997; Salt, 1984; 1988; 1992). Equally, such professionals are encouraged to enhance their career paths within such organizations by spending time working abroad (Beaverstock, 1996b; Salt, 1988). Further, given the disproportionate location of TNCs and specialised high-order service functions within global cities, substantial flows of transients occur between them (Economist, 1998). But these flows are very difficult to quantify given the paucity of disaggregated data from official sources and ICTs (Salt et al, 1994). Moreover, as globalization processes continue to concentrate and intensify, specialised service TNC functions within the financial spaces of global cities (Sassen, 1995), any analysis of transient professional migration must investigate them within the context of IFCs. If we are to explore transient professional migration between IFCs, we must go further than Sassen, and the work on TNCs. I should begin to link the globalization tendencies of professional migration with theories accounting for financial geographies within IFCs (Leyshon and Thrift 1997). In the following section, I discuss the symbiotic relationship that exists between globalization and transient migration in IFCs by considering two very important 'driving forces': producer service TNCs; and migrants' embedded geographies--their role in the accumulation of 'cultural capital'.

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND TRANSIENT MIGRATION IN IFCS

Transient professional migration remains an 'invisible' facet of globalization processes within IFCs (Beaverstock, 1996a). This is surprising, when we consider that London, New York, Tokyo and...

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