Brownbag Lunch: Global Immigrant Gateways

Events of Globalization Week Fall 2005

Date: Friday, November 11, 2005
Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm
Location: Marvin Center Room 309, 800 21st Street NW

Speakers

• Lisa Benton-Short, Professor of Geography, George Washington University
• Marie Price, Professor of Geography and International Affairs, George Washington University

Media

Event Summary

At this brownbag lunch event, Professor Lisa Benton-Short and Professor Marie Price presented their ongoing research of urban migration. The study seeks to understand the patterns of immigrant settlement in urban global cities. The study compiled data on percent foreign born at the urban level and the countries of origin for foreign-born stock in 150 cities. The compilation includes all cities that often appear in global cities research, and also cities that are underrepresented in the common literature. The study takes into account the number of foreign-born residents, the diversity of flow, percentage of foreign-born that is above the national average, and transnational linkages between the city and sending country. The major immigrant cities span over 50 countries in North America, Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. All the cities studied have a population of close to or over 1 million.

Professor Benton-Short opened the talk by describing the past research studies that have been conducted on global cities. According Professor Benton-Short, "most global cities literature looks at cities through economic lenses." Alpha cities, or cities of high economic importance in the world, include traditional financial hubs like London, New York, and Tokyo, as well as cities of regional or national importance like Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney, Frankfurt, or Chicago. Alpha cities are all located in the northern hemisphere. Beta cities are increasing in economic importance and include cities such as Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Brussels, Mexico City, Singapore, Zurich, and Toronto. Finally, gamma cities are large cities, but have not quite reached the recognized level on the global scales. Some examples of gamma cities are Beijing, Istanbul, Miami, Warsaw, Caracas, and Melbourne.

Professor Benton-Short and Professor Price said that is important to look beyond the economic importance of these cities because they also represent gateways. In addition to being critical entry points for the dispersion of goods and capital, gateways are also chosen destinations for immigrants and sites for cultural exchange. There are tens of thousands of gateways in the world. These gateways can come in the form of border crossings, traditional settlement areas, major tourist destinations, or place of exchange of arts such as Mumbai's Bollywood or sites for Olympic games.

Based on collected data, Professor Benton-Short and Professor Price classified the urban immigrant gateways into four categories: established gateways, unrecognized gateways, bypassed gateways, and accidental gateways. Established Gateways are traditional settlement cities with diverse immigrant population. Examples of established gateways include Vancouver, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Buenos Aires. In Vancouver, 39% of the population is foreign born from East, South, and Southeast Asia and Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin American and Australia/Oceania. Similarly, London's foreign born population of 27% reveals diverse origins from Asia, Africa, other parts of Europe, USA, and Australia.

Unrecognized Gateways are cities that often do not appear in global cities literature, but have the foreign born population above the national average. Some examples of unrecognized immigrant gateways include Singapore, Dubai, San Jose (Costa Rica), Birmingham (UK), Tel Aviv, Washington D.C, Johannesburg, and Mecca. In Dubai, 82% of the population are foreign born, but there is little diversity because more than half of the foreign born are from South Asia and another quarter is from the Middle East and Iran. In Singapore, 18% of the population is foreign born, but Malaysians and Chinese comprise over three-fourths of this population.

Bypassed Gateways are cities that appear to be cosmopolitan, but had below average foreign born. They are not traditional areas of settlement, as the immigrants "bypass" the city to get to other cities. Nevertheless, these bypassed cities may have been immigrant gateways at one point in time. Examples of bypassed gateways include Tokyo, Quebec City, and Mexico City. Tokyo has a foreign born population of 2.41%, with the majority of foreign born comprised of South Korean and Chinese. Quebec City has a foreign born population of 3.3%, which is considerably lower than Vancouver and Toronto. However, the foreign born population in Quebec City reveals a diverse immigrant population from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Accidental gateways are cities that appear to be immigrant destination, but the actual figure on foreign born is misleading due to changed in political circumstances. Examples of accidental gateways include Hong Kong and Moscow. The foreign born in these cities did not migrate, but were just considered foreign born due to political reasons. For instance, prior to Hong Kong's return to China, people from Mainland China were considered foreign born. After the return, the Chinese were no longer considered foreign born, since Hong Kong was now part of China.

Of the entire list, the top five global cities with the most foreign born included well-known gateways such as Los Angeles (3.4 million), New York (3.1 million), Toronto (2.1 million), London (1.94 million), and lesser-known gateways such as Medina (1.89 million). Interestingly, the top five immigrant cities with the highest percentage of foreign born revealed unique findings. Dubai had the highest number of foreign born, comprising 82% of the population. Next on the list were Miami at 51%, Amsterdam at 47%, Toronto at 45%, and Muscat at 45%.

In conclusion, examining the ethnic composition of urban cities and studying immigrant settlement patterns provide interesting insights on the relationship between globalization and migration. In the future, Professor Benton-Short and Professor Price hope to examine the issue of urban immigrant gateways and how they affect social and economic spaces. According to Professor Price, "places that receive lots of foreign born can be a mosaic of diversity, but also tension." Paris is a good example of how some of this diversity and lack of integration can become contested spaces.

For more information, please visit the Globalization, Urbanization, and Migration website.

Speaker Bios

Lisa Benton-Short is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the George Washington University, where she has taught since 2001. She is currently the Director for the Center on Urban and Environmental Research (CUER) at GWU. She received her BA from Stanford University (history) and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University (geography). An urban specialist, Dr. Benton-Short has written about globalization and cities as well as urban parks and public space. She has published several books, including The Presidio: from Army Post to National Park (1998), Environmental Discourse and Practice (2000, co-authored with John Rennie Short). Her publications include articles in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Urban Geography, Environment and Planning, The Professional Geographer and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Marie Price is an Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University, where she has taught since 1990. She is currently chair of the Department of Geography. A native of California, she earned her BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. A Latin American specialist, Dr. Price has conducted research in Belize, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and the United States. Her research has explored human migration, natural resource use, environmental conservation, and regional development. She is co-author of the textbook Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment and Development, now in its third edition. Her publications include articles in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Geographical Review, Journal of Historical Geography, Urban Geography, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, CLAG Yearbook, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Focus. Her current research focuses on transnational migration and its impact on world cities. In 2006 she will be a visiting fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC.

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