Les universitaires étrangers dans une ville mondiale : le cas de Hong Kong - article ; n°1 ; vol.15, pg 121-137

Philip Ogden, Yves Charbit, Allan Allanm.Findlay, Lin Li, Ron Skeldon

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Revue européenne de migrations internationales - Année 1999 - Volume 15 - Numéro 1 - Pages 121-137
Les universitaires étrangers dans une ville mondiale : le cas de Hong Kong.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li et Ron Skeldon.
On a beaucoup écrit sur les relations internationales entre les grandes villes, mais la plupart des recherches se sont focalisées sur l'analyse de la force de travail dans le secteur secondaire ou sur la mobilité des cadres et des professionnels induite par les mouvements internationaux de capitaux. Cet article supplée à l'absence de recherches sur la migration vers les grandes villes de professionnels de secteurs de la santé et de l'éducation. Il s'appuie sur une enquête auprès de plus de 400 universitaires étrangers qui contribuent à la spécialisation internationale des compétences de Hong Kong en tant que ville mondiale. Les circonstances historiques spécifiques qui gouvernent le changement du rôle de Hong Kong dans les années quatre-vingt-dix, qui est passé du statut de colonie britannique à celui de ville mondiale chinoise ajoute une dimension exceptionnelle à cette analyse.
Foreign Academies in a Global City : the case of Hong Kong.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li and Ron Skeldon.
Much has been written about the international linkages of global cities, but most migration research on this topic has focused either on labour for the secondary sector or professional and managerial staff moving in relation to flows of international capital. This paper addresses the lack of research on skilled migration to global cities by professionals working in public sector activities such as health and education. The empirical context is a survey of over 400 foreign academies contributing to the international skill specialisation of Hong Kong as a global city. The historically specific circumstances of Hong Kong's changing role in the 1990s from British colony to Chinese global city adds an extra dimension to the analysis.
Los universitarios extranjeros en una ciudad mundial.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li and Ron Skeldon.
Se ha escrito mucho sobre las relaciones internacionales entre las grandes ciudades, sin embargo la mayoria de las investigaciones se han centrado bien en el análisis de la fuerza de trabajo en el sector secundario, o bien en la movilidad de los ejecutivos y de los profesionales inducida por los movimientos de capital. Este artículo viene a llenar el vacio existente en la investigación sobre la migración cualificada de profesionales de la educacion y de la sanidad hacia las grandes ciudades. Los autores analizan la cuestión apoyándose en una encuesta realizada a más de 400 universitarios extranjeros que contribuyen a la especialización internacional de las competencias de Hong Kong como ciudad mundial. Las circunstancias historicas específicas que durante la década de los noventa han hecho posible la transformacion del estatuto de Hong Kong, que ha dejado de ser colonia británica para convertirse en gran ciudad china agregan una dimensión particular a este estudio.
17 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: REVUE_EUROPEENNE_DE_MIGRATIONS_INTERNATIONALES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Monsieur Allan Findlay
Lin Li
Ron Skeldon
Les universitaires étrangers dans une ville mondiale : le cas de
Hong Kong
In: Revue européenne de migrations internationales. Vol. 15 N°1. Migration et ethnicité au Royaume-Uni. pp. 121-
137.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Findlay Allan, Li Lin, Skeldon Ron. Les universitaires étrangers dans une ville mondiale : le cas de Hong Kong. In: Revue
européenne de migrations internationales. Vol. 15 N°1. Migration et ethnicité au Royaume-Uni. pp. 121-137.
doi : 10.3406/remi.1999.1667
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/remi_0765-0752_1999_num_15_1_1667Résumé
Les universitaires étrangers dans une ville mondiale : le cas de Hong Kong.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li et Ron Skeldon.
On a beaucoup écrit sur les relations internationales entre les grandes villes, mais la plupart des
recherches se sont focalisées sur l'analyse de la force de travail dans le secteur secondaire ou sur la
mobilité des cadres et des professionnels induite par les mouvements internationaux de capitaux. Cet
article supplée à l'absence de recherches sur la migration vers les grandes villes de professionnels de
secteurs de la santé et de l'éducation. Il s'appuie sur une enquête auprès de plus de 400 universitaires
étrangers qui contribuent à la spécialisation internationale des compétences de Hong Kong en tant que
ville mondiale. Les circonstances historiques spécifiques qui gouvernent le changement du rôle de
Hong Kong dans les années quatre-vingt-dix, qui est passé du statut de colonie britannique à celui de
ville mondiale chinoise ajoute une dimension exceptionnelle à cette analyse.
Abstract
Foreign Academies in a Global City : the case of Hong Kong.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li and Ron Skeldon.
Much has been written about the international linkages of global cities, but most migration research on
this topic has focused either on labour for the secondary sector or professional and managerial staff
moving in relation to flows of international capital. This paper addresses the lack of research on skilled
migration to global cities by professionals working in public sector activities such as health and
education. The empirical context is a survey of over 400 foreign academies contributing to the
international skill specialisation of Hong Kong as a global city. The historically specific circumstances of
Hong Kong's changing role in the 1990s from British colony to Chinese global city adds an extra
dimension to the analysis.
Resumen
Los universitarios extranjeros en una ciudad mundial.
Allan M. Findlay, Lin Li and Ron Skeldon.
Se ha escrito mucho sobre las relaciones internacionales entre las grandes ciudades, sin embargo la
mayoria de las investigaciones se han centrado bien en el análisis de la fuerza de trabajo en el sector
secundario, o bien en la movilidad de los ejecutivos y de los profesionales inducida por los movimientos
de capital. Este artículo viene a llenar el vacio existente en la investigación sobre la migración
cualificada de profesionales de la educacion y de la sanidad hacia las grandes ciudades. Los autores
analizan la cuestión apoyándose en una encuesta realizada a más de 400 universitarios extranjeros
que contribuyen a la especialización internacional de las competencias de Hong Kong como ciudad
mundial. Las circunstancias historicas específicas que durante la década de los noventa han hecho
posible la transformacion del estatuto de Hong Kong, que ha dejado de ser colonia británica para
convertirse en gran ciudad china agregan una dimensión particular a este estudio.Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 1999(15) 1 pp. 121-137 121
Foreign academics in a global city :
the case of Hong Kong
A.M. FINDLAY*, F.L.N. LI** and R. SKELDON*
Education is one of the most powerful forces for development, both as a
supplier of the manpower necessary for a modern economy and as a consumer of
human and physical resources. Education also serves major functions in the
globalisation of human activities, not least in internationalised economic exchanges.
These exchanges are co-ordinated from urban centres that have emerged to create a
functionally integrated hierarchy of global cities (Friedmann, 1986 ; King, 1990 ;
Sassen, 1991). These global cities control the increasingly complex structure of
international capital flows and need to be supported by the development of high quality
education, particularly in the tertiary sector. Arguably the greatest, certainly the longest
established, universities are not found in what could be classified as global cities :
Bologna, Heidelberg, Tubingen, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Princeton,
Ryukoku (Kyoto). However, there is no global city without its great university or
universities.
Sassen (1991) has demonstrated that global cities attract not only
international capital, but also international migrants. These migrants, she proposed,
are divided into two very different groups of workers : a wealthy, highly mobile group
of professionals on the one hand, and a poorly paid group on the other who provide
the basic services needed by the wealthy group, that « new labour aristocracy »
(Waldinger, 1992). This bipolar division of labour may be an oversimplification, or it
may not describe the situation in many global cities, and much further research is
required into this issue. Some, such as Sassen (1988), have focused on the migration
to global cities largely in terms of unskilled labour, while others, such as Beaverstock
* Department of Geography, University of Dundee DD 1 4HN, UK.
** of of DD1 UK.
*** Population Division, UNESCAP Bangkok, Thailand. 122 A.M. FINDLAY, F.L.N. LI and R. SKELDON
(1994), have pursued the skilled side of the international moves. As global cities are
the principal locations for the headquarters of transnational corporations, they are host
to large numbers of skilled immigrants moving both within these companies and also
independently. For one study of mobility and migration within the electronics
industry, see Findlay et al. (1996).
The status of a global city is determined ultimately by its tertiary function
rather than by its significance as a manufacturing centre. Studies of banking and other
financial organisations attest to the importance of international skill transfers among
institutions in the major world financial sectors (Beaverstock, 1994, 1996 ;
Beaverstock and Smith, 1996). However, relatively little is known about highly skilled
staff working outside the private sector. Global cities, as centres of international skill
specialisation and centres of training and research excellence, are nodes in the
exchange of knowledge. Just how the international mobility of faculty and students
plays a part in sustaining centres of research excellence remains largely
unknown.
The need for transnational companies temporarily to transfer staff from one
country to another for various functions (corporate communication, control and
supervision etc.) has been identified as a key mechanism accounting for a significant
part of observed skilled transient migration (Salt, 1988). In tertiary education, there are
no similar mechanisms of employer-initiated international transfers within the internal
labour market of institutions. Short-term secondments or sabbatical visits to other
universities are not uncommon, often facilitated by governments, but many
employment-related international moves undertaken by academics are channelled in
other ways. The extent to which academic personnel participate in the increased
population mobility around the globe, and the nature of their participation, are poorly
understood.
In an attempt to examine the mobility of academic personnel, the authors
undertook a survey of a sample of foreign staff employed in state-sponsored, higher
education and research institutions in Hong Kong. Drawing on the results from this
survey, the following objectives are pursued in this paper :
• to evaluate the characteristics of academic migration to Hong Kong ;
• to consider any changes in these characteristics in the context of Hong
Kong's transition from a British to a Chinese global city.
HONG KONG AS GLOBAL CITY AND THE ROLE OF THE
TERTIARY EDUCATION SECTOR
In the latter part of the twentieth century it has become evident that economic
and political forces operating at a global level, rather than socio-economic factors
working at a local level, have come to be the primary influences controlling
REMI 1999(15)1 pp. 121-137 Foreign academics in a global city 123
international migration. This has been as true of Hong Kong as it has been for other
Asian tiger economies. Over the last two decades, Hong Kong has emerged as a key
player in the international economy, meeting the many criteria of being a global city
(Friedmann, 1986 ; Skeldon, 1997b). Particularly, its functions in the economic growth
of the Pearl River delta and in linking the area to the international market are widely
recognised (Friedmann, 1995 ; Skeldon 1997a ; Sung et al., 1995). The 1984 Sino-
British Joint Declaration over the future of