Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T18:17:58.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Foreign direct Investment and Immigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2021

Get access

Summary

Displacing the locus of explanation away from poverty or economic stagnation in sending countries and onto the processes that link sending and receiving country introduces a set of variables into the analysis not usually thought of as pertaining to immigration. Such linkages are constituted through processes that are historically specific. In the current period, the internationalization of production is central in the constitution of such linkages (Sassen, 1988: 9-10).

Introduction

This chapter aims to assess the central claims in the global city theoretical framework on what drives immigration flows from newly-industrializing countries to cities in the advanced economies in general, and to global cities in particular. It is argued in this framework that the classic migration theories, which revolve around underdevelopment and population pressures, fall short in explaining these immigrant flows. Indeed, these flows should instead be understood as being driven by a combination of a new push and a new pull factor. The former concerns foreign direct investment from the advanced economies in newly-industrializing countries, while the latter relates to the massive labour demand for low-skilled service workers driven by the clustering of advanced producer services in cities.

Section 4.2 will further elaborate on these claims and how they relate to classic explanations of immigration from less-developed to advanced economies. Subsequently, Section 4.3 will examine their empirical validity. The findings of this assessment will be discussed in the concluding section, 4.4, which will answer the following research questions: Can the new immigration to cities in the advanced economies be explained by foreign direct investments? (Research Question 4), and: Does the clustering of advanced producer services attract immigrant labour from newly-industrializing countries? (Research Question 5).

Immigration in the global city: theoretical framework

Before Sassen published The Global City in 1991, her scholarly interest primarily concerned immigration flows from newly-industrializing countries to large cities in the advanced economies. In fact, the roots of the global city theoretical framework can be found in her studies on that subject, as is clearly revealed by titles like The New Labour Demand in Global Cities (Sassen-Koob, 1984b) and New York City: Economic Restructuring and Immigration (Sassen-Koob, 1986).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Global City Debate Reconsidered
Economic Globalization in Contemporary Dutch Cities
, pp. 73 - 88
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×