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).