This article assesses separately the push/pull-factor explanations in Sassen’s theory on migration from newly industrialising countries to cities in OECD countries. The push-factor explanation argues that foreign direct investments spawn migration flows to the country from which these investments stem. The pull-factor explanation revolves around demand for low-skilled workers in cities due to the clustering of advanced producer services. It is found that Dutch investment flows indeed function as a push factor for migration to Dutch cities, but that the local settlement of immigrants is not related to the clustering of advanced producer services.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeerP. deKosterF. (2009) Sticking Together or Falling Apart: Solidarity in an Era of Individualization and Globalization. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
2.
BurgersJ. (1996) No polarisation in Dutch cities? Inequality in a corporatist country, Urban Studies, 33(1), pp. 99–105.
3.
CastlesS.MillerM. J. (2008) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World, 4th edn.Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
4.
ElliottJ. R. (2004) The work of cities: underemployment and urban change in late-20th-century America, Cityscape, 7(1), pp. 107–133.
5.
HahmS. D.HeoU. (2008) U.S. and Japanese foreign direct investment in East Asia: a comparative analysis, The Policy Studies Journal, 36(3), pp. 385–401.
6.
HamnettC. (1994) Social polarisation in global cities: theory and evidence, Urban Studies, 31(3), pp. 401–425.
KasardaJ. D.FriedrichsJ. (1985) Comparative demographic–employment mismatches in U.S. and West German cities, Research in the Sociology of Work, 3(1), pp. 1–30.
9.
KloostermanR. C. (1996) Double Dutch: polarisation trends in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Regional Studies, 30(5), pp. 467–476.
10.
KuglerM.RapoportH. (2007) International labor and capital flows: complements or substitutes?, Economics Letters, 94(2), pp. 155–162.
11.
MartinP. L. (1993) An evaluation of international migration theory: the North American case, Population and Development Review, 20(4), pp. 699–751.
12.
MartinP. L. (1995) Investment, trade, and migration, International Migration Review, 29(3), pp. 820–825.
13.
MasseyD. S. (1988) Development and international migration in comparative perspective, Population and Development Review, 14(3), pp. 383–413.
14.
MasseyD. S.ArangoJ.HugoG.KouaochiA.. (1993) Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal, Population and Development Review, 19(3), pp. 431–466.
15.
MyersR. H. (1990) Classical and Modern Regression with Applications, 2nd edn.Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press.
16.
PortesA. (2000) Immigration and the metropolis: reflections on urban history, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 1(2), pp. 153–157.
17.
RickettsE. (1987) U.S. investment and immigration from the Caribbean, Social Problems, 34(4), pp. 374–387.
18.
SandersonM. R.KentorJ. (2008) Foreign direct investment and international migration: a cross-national analysis of less-developed countries, 1985–2000, International Sociology, 23(4), pp. 514–539.
19.
SassenS. (1988) The Mobility of Labor and Capital: A Study in International Investment and Labor Flow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
SassenS. (1993) Rebuilding the global city: economy, ethnicity and space, Social Justice, 20(3/4), pp. 32–50.
21.
SassenS. (2001) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, 2nd edn.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
22.
SassenS. (2002) Locating cities on global circuits, Environment & Urbanization, 14(1), pp. 13–30.
23.
SassenS. (2006a) Cities in a World Economy, 3rd edn.Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
24.
SassenS. (2006b) Foreign investment: a neglected variable, in: MessinaA. M.LahavG. (Eds) The Migration Reader: Exploring Politics and Policy, pp. 596–608. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
25.
Sassen-KoobS. (1984a) Direct foreign investment: a migration push-factor, Environment and Planning C, 2(4), pp. 399–416.
26.
Sassen-KoobS. (1984b) The new labor demand in global cities, in: SmithM. P. (Ed.) Cities in Transformation: Capital, Class and Urban Structure, pp. 139–171. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
27.
Sassen-KoobS. (1985) Capital mobility and labor migration: their expression in core cities, in: TimberlakeM. (Ed.) Urbanization in the World-economy, pp. 231–265. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
28.
Sassen-KoobS. (1986) New York city: economic restructuring and immigration, Development and Change, 17(1), pp. 85–119.
29.
WaalJ. van der (2010) Unravelling the Global City Debate: Economic Inequality and Ethnocentrism in Contemporary Dutch Cities. PhD thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
30.
WaalJ. van der (2012) Post-industrialisation, immigration, and unemployment: how and why the impact of immigration on unemployment differs between Dutch cities, Urban Studies, 49(8), pp. 1711–1724.
31.
WaalJ. van derBurgersJ. (2009) Unravelling the global city debate on social inequality: a firm-level analysis of wage inequality in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Urban Studies, 46(13), pp. 2715–2729.
32.
WaalJ. van derBurgersJ. (2011) Post-industrialisation, job opportunities and ethnocentrism: a comparison of twenty-two Dutch urban economies, Urban Studies, 48(4), pp. 681–697.
33.
YangP. Q. (1998) The demand for immigration to the United States, Population and Environment, 19(4), pp. 357–383.
34.
ZorluA.MulderC. (2008) Initial and subsequent location choices of immigrants to the Netherlands, Regional Studies, 42(2), pp. 245–264.
