Global Financial Centers as Channels for International Labor Migrant Inflow into Cities of Europe

Abstract

Europe is the leading region of international immigration (after Asia). Most of immigrants to Europe are directed to its cities, particularly to global ones. One of the typical characteristics of global cities is the availability of global financial centers. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the role of global financial centers as channels of international labor migration to the cities of Western and Eastern Europe. The research is pursued on the basis of global cities’ concept, with special attention to the pulling effects of global financial centers. London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Warsaw are taken as cities for research. The investigation is focused on such aspects of global financial centers as their impact on composition and dynamics of labor migration to the above mentioned cities, influence of this workforce on business and social life of the cities, adaptation problems of migrants in the cities of their accommodation. The authors come to a conclusion that Brexit will not radically diminish the pulling effect of London global financial center for qualified immigrants, though some international companies will continue moving from London to continental financial centers and partially to Dublin. Another conclusion is that cosmopolitan environment is important for qualified migrants to global financial centers including the extent of English, high level of living and culture conditions, freedom of movement. Some comparisons of those global financial centers with Moscow are made in the final part of the paper. On the authors’ opinion, the position of Moscow global financial center is dual from the point of international labor migration. On the one hand, economic and political aspects (low growth rates, Western sanctions, high volatility of ruble) as well as cultural aspects (insufficient extent of English) hamper its development. On the other hand, in the last years, Moscow has been lifting in the ranking of global financial centers without high immigration of foreign qualified labor, like Warsaw and Dublin. Acknowledgements. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation. Project no. 19-18-00251.