Globalization is rapid but unbalanced.

• Author: Ayres, Ed
• Position: Statistical Data Included

The United Nations Development Programme's new Human Development Report 1999 shows that while global integration is proceeding "at breakneck speed and with amazing reach," much of the world is not participating in its rewards. "The new rules of globalization - and the players writing them - focus on integrating global markets, neglecting the needs of people that markets cannot meet. The process is concentrating power and marginalizing the poor," note the authors.

Among the players who have thrived are financial dealers, multinational corporations, criminal cartels, tourists, NGOs, and highly skilled labor - all of which cut across traditional regional or national categories. National borders have largely disappeared for organizations using the globally integrated money markets or information networks, or for individuals with high-level job skills. In Europe and the United States, for example, immigrants with skills in computing technologies are in high demand.

For people with poor education or job skills, however, the benefits of globalization - the rewarding work, freedom to travel, and ability to taste the fruits of international trade - have remained out of reach. "Many families are divided across international borders as a result of the increasingly tight restrictions in the rich countries on the immigration of skilled labor," note the authors. The global, professional elite enjoys a world of open borders and abundant goods, but billions of others find borders as impassable...