The middle space of migration: A case study on brokerage and recruitment agencies in Nepal

Foreign employment has become a global phenomenon. With the increasing commercialisation and formalisation of transnational labour migration, recruitment agencies and agents have gained importance. The paper aims to contribute to a more differentiated understanding of the role and the practices of the main actors in the middle space of migration, the brokers in the recruitment process for transnational migration. Based on empirical material from Nepal, it argues that the detected negative reputation of labour brokers is only partially justified. Besides common bad practices and fraud cases, recruiters perform important roles for the facilitation of transnational mobility and present the necessary infrastructure for labour migration. They connect people and places, establish networks and can play an important role in making migration safer. Brokers are important facilitators in supporting alternative income strategies and new livelihood options of people. At the same time they are entrepreneurs in a competitive and risky economic field, confronted with multifaceted constraints. As long as the gap between the dreams of potential migrants and the reality of marginality in Nepal remains wide, labour brokers might persist as important middlemen for global work. Thus, migration brokerage is likely to remain big business.     

Imagining global work: Producing understandings of difference in ‘easy Asia’

In this paper, I advance debates that argue that we need to reconceptualise global work from a mobilities perspective by looking how the representation of movement connects with the experience of movement. By looking at the imaginative geographies of Singapore for the British corporate expatriate, I explore how the qualitative representation of place is changing within managerial discourses from a hardship to an opportunity. In doing so, the paper argues that we need to combine understandings of the global economic flows that move some transnational migrants with their everyday lived experiences in order to explore what qualitatively makes work global. This allows us to highlight the multiplicity of ways in which transnational migrants can be understood rather than trying to impose singularity.     

A site of transnationalism in the “Ungrounded Empire”: Taipei as an interface city in the cross-border business networks

This paper explores the dynamics of the economic development of Taipei City under conditions of globalization. Although Taipei City had undergone rapid industrialization and exploited the rural-urban division of labor since at least the 1960s, the city’s economic base changed dramatically after 1980. Initiating a process of industrial restructuring, the nation state encouraged high technology industries to help upgrade Taipei City’s role within global production chains. It was the transnational connection that kept regional growth within high ‘value-added’ activities. Instead of relying on a few major transnational corporations as the key agents of internationalization, Taipei City transformed itself into a node for high-technology knowledge, which connected the city with high-technology hubs elsewhere, and to Silicon Valley in particular, through transnational technical communities. At the same time, companies headquartered in the city extended their production chains across the Taiwan Strait to locate production facilities in the major coastal cities of mainland China. In consequence, Taipei City became a nodal city in these cross-border connections. These developments illustrate the limits of global city discourses which fail to pay sufficient attention to the role of developmental states and transnationalism in the process of global transformation.     

Network configurations and R&D activities of the ICT industry in Suzhou municipality, China

This paper analyzes the network structure and R&D activities of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in Suzhou municipality, known previously for its local state-directed Sunan model of development. Suzhou, however, has been undergoing dramatic restructuring to remake itself into a globalizing production center. We highlight the significance of the Chinese state and local/regional assets in shaping the trajectories of globalization and regional development, and the increasing importance of domestic markets and regional clusters/agglomeration for foreign ventures. We have found that Suzhou’s development path, heavily dependent on external forces, has made Suzhou a TNC (transnational corporation) satellite district. We also find that the ICT industry in Suzhou has a dual-structure, segmented between foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and domestic firms. TNCs tend to network among themselves and their interfirm networks are increasingly domestic and regionally embedded in the Yangtze River Delta, while the linkages between TNCs and local firms are weak. We argue that there is a series of technological, structural, spatial, and institutional “mismatches” that limits the establishment of “global pipelines” of knowledge exchange. We hold that the nature of global-local networks is contingent upon regional endogenous capacities and the specific ways in which global capital interacts with local institutions. Therefore, perspectives on TNCs’ local embeddedness must be positioned in their regional/external networks. We also analyze the constraints placed on Suzhou’s development into an innovative city and promote the integration of global and local/regional assets through development of indigenous capacities.     

The rise of territorial eco-certifications: New politics of transnational sustainability governance in the fishery sector

Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, palm oil, and soy. In each, multiple eco-certification initiatives have been developed and resisted through interactions among non-governmental organizations, governments, and commercial actors. This paper contributes to understanding how power is embodied in certifications by exploring how territoriality manifests in the international struggle over defining what products are ‘sustainable’ and which producers will have access to markets that require ‘sustainable’ products. Focusing on the wild capture fisheries sector in which the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) administers the preeminent eco-certification initiative, we explore the emergence of new fisheries eco-certification initiatives in Japan, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, and the US that insist there is no transnational monopoly on judgments over fisheries sustainability. We argue that these new eco-certifications attempt to defend and embed territorial social and regulatory relations of production within the contested domain of transnational sustainability governance. The initiatives accommodate both the territorially embedded material interests, institutions, and discursive strategies of producers (and their state supporting agencies) and transnationally embedded governance norms for assessing and communicating sustainability. They also counter the globally applicable institutions of the MSC in favor of making space for state and non-state actors to contend with demands for sustainability in the global seafood market by combining place-specific attributes with transnational governance norms.     

Transnational ties and intra-immigrant group settlement experiences: A case study of Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis in Toronto

Transnational theories have established that, after migrating to a new country, migrants often maintain their pre-existing social, economic, and political ties to their home country. The extent to which however, transnational institutional and social connections may affect the residential location and housing experiences of immigrant and refugee groups, and why and how these experiences differ within broadly defined immigrant groups such as the ‘South Asians’ remains unexplored. Building on transnational theory and previous research on the housing trajectories of new Canadians, this paper examines the housing experiences of two recently arrived ‘South Asian’ subgroups in Toronto–Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis. By highlighting important intra-immigrant group differences, the study reveals how diverse transnational ties affect their neighbourhood choice and the type, tenure, and quality of housing when they first arrived in Toronto.     

Predicting the production rate of diamond wire saw using statistical analysis

Performance prediction of diamond wire saws is important in the cost estimation and the planning of the stone quarries. An accurate estimation of sawability helps to make the planning of the rock cutting projects more efficient. In this paper, the performance prediction of diamond wire saws in cutting carbonate rocks was studied on 14 different carbonate rocks in stone quarries located in Iran. Rock samples were collected from the quarries for laboratory tests. Uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, Schmidt hammer value, and Los Angeles abrasion were determined in the laboratory. Performance prediction was evaluated using simple and multiple regression analyses. Finally, a new model was proposed for predicting the production rate of diamond wire saw. It was concluded that the production rate of carbonate rock using diamond wire saw can reliably be estimated using the developed model.     

Globalisation, information technology and the emergence of niche transnational cities: the growth of the call centre sector in Dublin

The development of information and communications technologies (ICT) has facilitated the emergence of a complex global urban system in which many formerly lower-order cities have been carving out “niche” specialist functions serving urban fields of transnational dimension. This is illustrated in the case of Dublin, which in recent years has been transcending its traditional role as Ireland’s national metropolis through the development of a range of functions servicing mainly European markets. One such function comprises pan-European telephone call centre operations. The development and characteristics of this newly-emerging sector are described. It is argued that the growth of the sector confirms Dublin’s — and Ireland’s — dependent position in the international division of labour, and that its long-term sustainability is open to question.     

Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: People,places and networks

This paper develops an ethnographic study of a small rural based ‘creative cluster’, called Krowji, situated in the town of Redruth in West Cornwall, UK. The dominant geographies of creative industries research and policy in recent years have an acknowledged urban bias together with a focus on narratives of agglomeration. This paper sits alongside research that brings to the fore ‘other’ geographies of cultural production, and reflects an increasing interest in work on creativity in rural areas. Following work by Storper and Pratt, we explore Krowji’s complex interdependencies, investigating ‘the relations within, without and across the cluster’. We focus on the relationships between Krowji and its surrounding area together with the spatialities and temporalities of the relations that occur across and beyond the cluster. We address the dynamics and durability of relations formed within the cluster also paying attention to their disconnections. In offering this analysis we develop a valuable counterpoint to the urban bias of much work on creative clusters and we contribute to work that is looking more closely at the temporalities and spatialities of cultural production. Further, we point towards the value of ethnographical research on the creative industries.     

Caribbean skilled international migration and the transnational household

The increased proportion of skilled workers in the total number of Caribbean international migrants since the mid-1960s has been the cause of much concern by governments of Caribbean countries. It has been interpreted as a loss in human resources with detrimental implications for development. This paper briefly outlines the occupational profile of Caribbean migrants and raises questions concerning the extent to which migrant outflow represents absolute loss. The argument is advanced that the traditional conceptualization of migration as displacement is largely responsible for the assumptions made. It oversimplifies the process to present a set of sources and destinations, ignoring the interactions accompanied by significant counterflows of people, ideas, influence, capital and goods. It is argued that circulation is not confined to commuter-type mobility but in the Caribbean it is also a feature of long-stay migration and the establishment of what are effectively transnational households. Though the characteristics and spatial behaviour of the household vary with the specific migration type, the transnational household provides a more appropriate model for analysing Caribbean migration and its implications than does the model based on migration as displacement.     

Influence of physico-mechanical properties of Indian dimension stones on cutting rate of diamond wire saw

Cutting performance of diamond wire saw is a key factor influencing mine planning, production scheduling, and equipment selection for dimension stone quarries. It is normally measured in terms of cutting rate. Rock samples collected from various granite and marble quarries in India were tested in laboratory to determine their physico-mechanical properties. Cutting rate of diamond wire saw was measured in the field studies during the actual cutting process in quarries. Using these laboratory determined properties and the cutting rate, a multiple linear regression model has been developed to predict the cutting rate of diamond wire saw. Physico-mechanical properties of rocks determined in laboratory are used as independent variables and cutting rate as predictor variable in the regression model. The study indicates that the cutting rate increases with a decrease in most of the hardness and strength parameters of rock. The final model is tested for its goodness of fit indicating a significant linear relation between cutting rate and physico-mechanical properties, namely tensile strength, slake durability index, and Cerchar hardness index with regression coefficient of 94%. The resulting model can be used suitably for different types of hard to medium hard and soft dimension stones. The generalized model for estimating the cutting rate becomes a handy tool for mining engineers to work out operating efficiency, expenses, planning etc. of the dimension stone block cutting.     

The people’s food: the ingredients of “ethnic” hierarchies and the development of Chinese restaurants in Rome

In the last 20 years, the growth of Chinese immigration in Italy has increased, being characterized by multiple migration strategies linked to transnational economic activities. This has been particularly the case with the Chinese immigrant community in Rome, where many of these immigrants are involved in the restaurant or import–export business. In this context, the Chinese immigrant presence in the restaurant sector will be analysed in detail within a multimethod approach developed to explore the number, location and characteristics of all Chinese restaurants that were opened and closed since the 1970s. This exercise in economic geography is linked to other questions such as power and cultural relations, urban planning practices and the discourses of racism. The development and the geography of the Chinese restaurants allow us to understand not only how far or close they are to the mainstream Italian restaurant sector, but also the spatial trajectories of Roman Chinese in general within the urban landscape. As Chinese restaurants outside China have become a symbol of transnational Chinese identity, it is worth considering the real spatial practices attached to the construction and negotiation of this transnationality.     

From Kerala to Dubai and back again: Construction migrants and the global economic crisis

As a crisis that was precipitated in part by risky forms of investment in the built environment, construction workers, and particularly migrants employed in the industry have been at the forefront of job-losses worldwide since 2008. I offer a reading of construction unemployment through David Harvey’s theorisation of the secondary circuit of capital, arguing that these trends reflect the industry’s immanent connections to the built environment and to volatile, debt-fuelled urbanisation strategies which have played a crucial role in absorbing global capital surpluses in recent years. I ground this international perspective through a case study on the crisis experiences of a group of migrant construction workers from the south Indian state of Kerala who lost their jobs in Dubai in 2009. Based on interviews with migrants who returned home following the collapse of the emirate’s construction sector, I explore how a number of place-specific relationships that transect the Kerala–Dubai construction labour market served to compound these workers’ economic insecurity following the crisis. These include the immense migration debts that migrants shouldered, the insecure and exploitative character of employment in Dubai’s building trades, and the particular vulnerability of Dubai’s construction markets to the retreat of finance capital from the Gulf region in 2008. Workers’ accounts offer insights into the uneven and trans-local geometries of risk that define contemporary construction work in Dubai. More broadly, they provide a key perspective on the precarious producer geographies that underpin the secondary circuit of capital.     

Western migrants in central Europe: Isolated individuals or members of transnational communities?

Migration flows from western Europe, the United States and Canada to east central Europe have received little attention so far. But numbers are now considerable and in the context of globalisation it seems appropriate to conceptualise communities of Westerners in terms of transnational social spaces as defined by Glick Schiller et al. Study of Americans in Prague reveals three main groups: enterprise managers, lifestyle migrants and entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises. All are engaged in a variety of different processes of community-building, often with clear trends towards a new transnationalism. Yet, the individual attempt to live in two societies is limited by the marked boundaries of the communities and by the degree of social exclusion which they experience from the majority population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cloning colonialism: Residential development,transnational aspiration,and the complexities of postcolonial India

Within this article, we discuss/unpack a speculative international property development born out of a license agreement between the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and real estate investment company, Anglo Indian. The proposed building of twelve cloned, MCC branded, cricket communities in India–targeted to the consumption-based lifestyles of India’s new middle class–is addressed within the context relational to the political, economic, and cultural rationalities of postcolonial India, shifting power dynamics within the international cricket formation, and the associated re-colonisation of cricket-related spaces/bodies. Anglo Indian’s proposed communities are understood as part of a complex assemblage of national and global forces and relations (including, but certainly not restricted to): transnational gentrification; urban (re)development; and, revised understandings of historical and geographic connections between places, governance, and the politics of be(long)ing in branded spaces. This analysis explicates how Anglo Indian’s idealized community development offers a literal and figurative space for embodied performance of “glocal competence” for consumption-based identity projects of the new Indian middle-class (Brosius, 2010, p. 13) through the somewhat ironic mobilization of colonial spatial logics and cultural aesthetics.     

Two anisotropic layers in the Slave craton

Four years of recording global earthquakes using a broadband seismometer located at the Ekati diamond mine revealed variations with earthquake azimuth in the arrival of SKS phases. These variations can be modeled assuming two distinct layers of anisotropy in the lithosphere. The lower layer probably lies in the mantle, and the anisotropy aligns with both North American plate motion and the strike of mantle structures identified by previous conductivity and geochemical analyses, at ˜N50°E. The upper layer is hypothesized to result from regional structures in the uppermost mantle and the crust; these trends are distinct from the mantle trends.     

我国城市化发展的新特点及其区域空间建设策略

经济全球化成为21世纪最具有广泛影响的事件,将促进全球城市化的高速发展。我国正处在城市化高度发展时期,城市化出现“集群式”发展、城乡二元结构扩大、“驱赶型城镇化”和城市化的区域空间差异性等新特点、新问题。我国快速城市化过程中出现的新矛盾、水土资源流失与大量占用,对沿海地区一些城市的区域环境产生了很多负面影响,诸如酸雨、城市污染、汽车烟雾和交通阻塞等。面对全球城市化的巨大影响与冲击,从区域空间角度出发,提出必须在科学发展观和构建和谐社会的指导下,使我国城市化走向健康之路,实施区域空间建设新策略,注重大城市群区内的保护与建设,因地制宜、合理利用、适度发展、构建区域性的生态安全格局,促进我国信息化的区域合作。     

Using spatial statistics to identify and characterise ethnoburbs: establishing a methodology using the example of Auckland,New Zealand

Recent studies in the United States and other Pacific Rim countries have identified a new form of ethnic minority group clustering within the residential mosaic—ethnoburbs. These are suburban in location, occupied by relatively high-income, predominantly Asian, immigrants, and low density in their nature: many migrants move directly to those suburbs rather than the inter-generational outward migration from central city clusters typical of other migrant streams. Although ethnoburb residents tend to cluster in particular segments of the built-up area they do not to form large percentages of the population there. As yet, no methodology has been developed to identify these clusters, as a prelude to identifying their characteristics. This paper offers such a procedure, based on local statistical analysis. It is applied to six Asian groups in Auckland, New Zealand.     

The community morphology of skilled migration: the changing role of voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in the grounding of British migrant identities in Paris (France)

Research into skilled migrant communities tends to emphasize the grounding of identities through transnationalism and mobility. Less research has been conducted into how skilled migrants actually ground their identities within the city through everyday social networks. The paper addresses this imbalance by examining the changing significance of British voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) in Paris, France. Combining qualitative and quantitative data, findings show local migrant networks to be important focal points for the British even though migrants’ lives may increasingly be transnational in orientation. The research also shows that in situ social networks are evolving. Specifically, traditional forms of elite expatriate communality are not as omnipotent as they once were, with the popularity of some high-profile British VCOs in Paris declining over recent decades. The paper argues that the link between social dynamism and communal morphology helps explain this shift: as British middle-class lifestyles have fragmented, and as the British migrant population in Paris has grown in scale and scope, so the range of VCOs and associated informal networks has grown. Whilst some skilled migrants still embed within traditional expatriate organisations, Britishness is increasingly grounded elsewhere; both within the city through alternative social networks, and located beyond the city through transnational ties.