Volume 22 Number 4 October 1996

Special issue: Globalisation and ethnic divisions in European cities

Articles

Saskia Sassen
New employment regimes in cities: the impact on immigrant workers [Abstract]

Sophie Body-Gendrot
Paris: a ‘soft’ global city? [Abstract]

Alec G. Hargreaves
A deviant construction: the French media and the ‘Banlieues’ [Abstract]

Jack Burgers and Godfried Engbersen
Globalisation, migration, and undocumented immigrants [Abstract]

Robert Kloosterman
Mixed experiences: post industrial transition and ethnic minorities on the Amsterdam labour market [Abstract]

Marco Martiniello
The existence of an urban underclass in Belgium [Abstract]

Hans van Amersfoort and Cees Cortie
Social polarisation in a welfare state? Immigrants in the Amsterdam region [Abstract]

Wiebe de Jong and Maykel Verkuyten
Urban renewal, housing policy and ethnic relations in Rotterdam [Abstract]

Abstracts

New employment regimes in cities: the impact on immigrant workers
Saskia Sassen

Abstract The major cities of highly developed countries exhibit marked changes in job supplies and employment relations. It is frequently held that post-industrial societies require plentiful supplies of highly educated workers and will hold no openings for the lowly skilled. It is this latter category of jobs that immigrants have tended to fill in recent decades. Empirical data on major cities in advanced economies negate this supposition, revealing that there is an ongoing demand for immigrant labour and a continuing stream of employment opportunities which do not require high educational levels and which pay low wages. The article examines whether this job supply is merely a residue, to some extent augmented by the supply of low wage workers themselves, or whether it is a feature of a reconfigured labour market in advanced urban economies, i.e. a systemic development.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 579-594, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Paris: a ‘soft’ global city?
Sophie Body-Gendrot

Abstract This article addresses the extent to which Paris can be classified as a global city in vein with London and New York. A brief demographic profile of the city provides a background for a discussion of the theories linking globalisation and immigration. Data on the labour market and housing positions of those groups in the population who for the purposes of this article will be referred to as ‘immigrants’ are then provided and discussed . The analysis suggests that while the emergence of a significant duality – in terms of wealth and poverty – can indeed be discerned in Paris, a further dimension is added by the traditionallly protective role of the state towards the less well-off and by the ethos of communal protest held by the French middle and lower classes. The article concludes that these factors have served to mitigate the effects of globalisation to the extent that Paris can, at best, be seen as ‘soft’ global city.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 595-605, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

A deviant construction: the French media and the ‘Banlieues’
Alec G. Hargreaves

Abstract The French 'banlieues' (literally, 'suburbs'), a term that previously served simply to denote peripheral parts of urban areas, have recently become a byword for ethnic alterity, deviance and disadvantage. The mass media have played a central role in this reconstruction. This article analyses the core elements of this process, considers how and why it emerged at this time, and explores similarities with media coverage of British inner cities. Four sets of contributory factors are considered: long-term demographic and socio-economic developments, the framing of public policy, the actions of minority ethnic youths and journalistic values and practices. Since the mid-1970s, a growing share of the French public housing stock has been allocated to minority ethnic groups of Third World origin. Immigrant families have generally been allocated to less popular, more run-down properties, especially in the outer reaches of urban areas. Through the prevalence of descriptive conglomerations in lieu of explanation and analysis, ethnic minorities tend to appear as the causes, rather than the victims, of urban problems. Disturbances in neglected urban spaces involving young people of minority ethnic origin have forced such areas onto the political agenda, but the under-representation of minority groups in the reporting process has disempowered them in the ensuing public debate.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 607-618, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Globalisation, migration, and undocumented immigrants
Jack Burgers and Godfried Engbersen

Abstract One of the manifestations of globalisation is the rapid increase in international migration. Most countries in the Western world have tried to restrict the migratory flows from peripheral economic areas. A new category of migrants has thus been created: the illegal aliens. The present article attempts to answer the question of how illegal aliens manage to survive in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Applying theoretical notions which have recently been developed in the field of urban studies, and more particularly in the work on 'global cities', we expected to find illegal migrants coming mostly from the countries from which guest-workers were formerly recruited and from former Dutch colonies. Furthermore, we expected to find that illegal aliens would be employed in the basic levels of traditional sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing and in parts of the expanding service industries. Although both hypotheses were confirmed, two findings stand out. First, more than half of the illegal aliens had come from countries which have (had) no direct economic or political ties with the Netherlands. A globalisation of production and politics appears to be accompanied by a globalisation of consumption patterns and information which generates migratory flows which are more diffuse in terms of relations between countries of origin and destination. Second, a third of the illegal aliens do not hold jobs or do not work for their living. Apparently, the Dutch case generates a type of illegal alien who has not been described previously in the literature: the undocumented unemployed. The notion of an opportunity structure for illegal aliens in Dutch cities is introduced to portray the various careers for illegal migrants.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 619-635, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Mixed experiences: post industrial transition and ethnic minorities on the Amsterdam labour market
Robert Kloosterman

Abstract The emerging post-industrial social stratification in the Netherlands appears to have an ethnic dimension. This ethnic dimension manifests itself most clearly in the larger cities, mainly due to the combination of a relatively high pace of economic restructuring and a strong migrant presence. In this article, an attempt is made to explain the social stratification in Amsterdam by distinguishing three labour market positions. Data are presented and different theoretical approaches are tested. No single approach can account for the intricate pattern that reveals both significant inter- as well as intra-ethnic differences, partly related to gender. Due to differences in migration histories, socio-cultural orientations and levels of discrimination, post-industrial transition in Amsterdam appears to affect the various ethnic groups in quite diverse ways.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 637-653, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

The existence of an urban underclass in Belgium
Marco Martiniello

Abstract This article asks the question of whether the concept of underclass would be of value in making sense of the processes of social and economic segregation, fragmentation and exclusion, of the unequal distribution of political power and of ‘ethnicised’ social relations in urban Belgium. To do so, the concept of underclass as developed in the United States and Great Britain is examined and criticised. The main point is that if the word underclass, as is often the case, is given a moral consent by purported scholars actually working in favour of a clear political project, it cannot be academically useful either in the US or in Europe. After having presented conditions subject to which a scientific concept of underclass can be constructed, an attempt is made to test empirically the value of the concept in the Belgian case. In conclusion the article suggests that even though there is not evidence to prove the existence of an urban underclass in Belgium, some prerequisite conditions for its emergence do exist.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 655-669, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Social polarisation in a welfare state? Immigrants in the Amsterdam region
Hans van Amersfoort and Cees Cortie

Abstract This article explores the effect of the recent decades’ de-industrialisation on Mediterranean and Surinamese immigrant groups in the Netherlands and posits the question of whether social polarisation is an emerging reality. Analysis of developments on respectively the labour and housing markets provide a dual approach. In relation to employment, it is found that the Mediterranean groups, who generally do not display high educational qualifications, are disproportionately affected by unemployment or poor employment prospects. The Surinamese, who on the whole are characterised by higher educational achievements, have fared better but their situation still compares unfavourably with that of the Dutch. A sizeable entry onto the labour market of young Dutch has enabled employers to demand higher qualifications and language skills even for low skilled jobs. The traditionally strong Dutch welfare state has to some considerable extent mititgated the negative effects of de-industrialisation, and this is particularly so in relation to the housing market, where large sectors of the housing stock are under municipal control and subject to rent controls. Although there is evidence of spatial discrimination within the housing market, the public transport system and the relatively small distances involved make it unlikely that this provides an explanation for the poorer employment prospects of immigrant communities. In conclusion it is suggested that an enhanced focus on education may provide the best means of improving the prospects of the Netherlands’ immigrant groups.

(New Community Vol. 22 No. 4: 671-687, © Carfax Publishing Ltd.)

Urban renewal, housing policy and ethnic relations in Rotterdam
Wiebe de Jong and Maykel Verkuyten

Abstract This article focuses on the more subtle processes affecting urban transformation, rather than on more general urban patterns. The developments in two inner-city neighbourhoods in Rotterdam are investigated in detail in order to understand local developments within this transformation process. The article provides a short historical overview of the urban renewal process in Rotterdam, and describes the impact this had on the housing situation of working-class people. It is shown that the succession process in these neighbourhoods differs from the way Park saw it (Park 1926). The question of local power and the role of prejudices is then discussed. It is argued that the dichotomous model of established residents and outsiders is too simple to allow an understanding of relations in these older neighbourhoods. Attention is therefore paid to the way ethnic Dutch residents understand and interpret their local situation. Finally, an attempt is made to apply the analysis constructively by addressing the question of how ethnic relations in these neighbourhoods may be improved.