Global Cities at Work

New Migrant Divisions of Labour

Jane Wills, Kavita Datta, Jara Evans, Joanna Herbert, Jon May and Cathy Mcllwaine

Pluto Press

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This book is about the people who always get taken for granted. The people who clean our offices and trains, care for our elders and change the sheets on the bed. Global Cities at Work draws on testimony collected from more than 800 foreign-born workers employed in low-paid jobs in London during the early years of the new century. Global Cities at Work breaks new ground in linking London's new migrant division of labor to the twin processes of subcontracting and increased international migration that have been central to contemporary processes of globalization. Global Cities at Work raises the level of debate about migrant labor, encouraging policy-makers, journalists and social scientists to look behind the headlines. The book calls us to take a politically-informed geographical view of our urban labor markets and to prioritize the issue of working poverty and its implications for both unemployment and community cohesion.

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Praise for Global Cities at Work

"For centuries, London has been a city of migrants.  Global Cities at Work shows, however, that new and distinctive 'migrant divisions of labor' are being forged in the context of today's contracted-out capitalism.  The voices of migrant workers--so often silenced in mainstream discussions of the global city--really come alive in these pages.  Meticulously researched and powerfully argued, the book exposes the hidden hands that make global cities work, while staking a claim to a more just future." --Jamie Peck, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia
 
"This research is a rare but critical window into the scale, nature and contradictions of contemporary immigration into the UK. While foreign financiers and footballers have made London a ‘world city’, this book casts light on much larger migrant workforce that keeps the city functioning. A migration study based on real evidence makes this a welcome and essential read for anyone interested in going beyond simplistic headlines." --Danny Sriskandarajah, former Head of Migration at the Institute for Public Policy Research
 
"This is a very timely book.  The description of migration-based divisions in the labour market should be of concern to all policy makers and politicians currently involved in planning a way out of deep recession.  After reading this analysis, the task of winning stronger rights for migrant workers to overcome marginalisation and exploitation seems ever more urgent." --Don Flynn, Director of the Migrants Rights Network
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About the Author

Jane Wills, Kavita Datta, Jara Evans, Joanna Herbert, Jon May and Cathy Mcllwaine

Jane Wills, Kavita Datta, Yara Evans, Joanna Herbert, Jon May and Cathy McIlwaine are all in the Department of Geography and The City Centre at Queen Mary, University of London. The team have already published articles based on their ESRC-funded research in Transactions of the Institute of British Geography, International Development Planning Review, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, European Urban and Regional Studies, Just Labor: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society and the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. The research has also provided intelligence for London Citizens' living wage campaign.

Jane Wills
Kavita Datta
Jara Evans
Joanna Herbert
Jon May
Cathy McIlwaine

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Global Cities at Work
New Migrant Divisions of Labour
Jane Wills, Kavita Datta, Jara Evans, Joanna Herbert, Jon May and Cathy Mcllwaine

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Pluto Press
January 2010
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780745327983
ISBN10: 0745327982
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 288 pages, 14 figures, 7 photographs
$34.95
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Hardcover

Learn more about this edition
Hardcover
Pluto Press
January 2010
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780745327990
ISBN10: 0745327990
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 288 pages, 14 figures, 7 photographs
$85.00
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