Re-thinking skilled international labour migration: World cities and banking organisations

Abstract

Highly skilled professional and managerial labour migration has become an important facet of the contemporary world economy. The operations of transnational corporations have created more opportunities for skilled migrants to work abroad. There are a series of explanations available to explain the causes and consequences of skilled transient labour migration. There is a growing interest amongst economic geographers to examine this form of migration through an appreciation of global economic restructuring, labour market change and world cities. Consequently, this paper introduces a new conceptual framework for understanding professional and managerial labour migration. This framework is based on the rationale that world cities, and the patterns of labour market demand that exist within them, are of paramount importance in influencing highly skilled professional and managerial labour migration within the world economy. The author uses an example of highly skilled labour migration within the transnational banking sector to illustrate this new conceptual framework.