The International Division of Labor and New York City - Essay Example

The pre-conditions for a city to be considered global are, among others, size; being the location for the headquarters of financial institutions that play a central role in international financial markets and capital flows; having many important international flights in and out of its airports; being a center that attracts world-class managers and having local facilities capable of providing these managerial skills; having a highly developed system of transportation and communication; and being a global hub for cultural activities, sports, and educational pursuits.

A global city would be an El Dorado sought out by many, and therefore would have thriving immigrant communities. A global city, to retain its premier position in the world economy, would be under constant pressure to provide goods and services of high quality at competitive prices. This could lead to outsourcing and relocation of many production facilities (both industrial production and services) to places, which provide them cheaper. This displaces the local people from lower-end jobs and results in a polarization of social classes, with the very rich and skilled living side by side with the marginalized who live in substandard conditions. It is this internationalization of the production process that leads to wide differences in the economic condition of people in a global city.

Who are the sufferers of this international division of labor?
The provider of goods and services from other countries, who have to refashion their lives to suit the global city’s production requirements (for instance, ‘call centers’ that operate from Asian locations during the night to suit New York’s time zone) certainly suffer.

The original locals of the global city from the lower-end jobs also run the double-edged risk of losing jobs and coping with higher costs of living. Invariably the cost of living in a global city (New York, Tokyo, et al) would be higher than in the neighboring cities. It is also likely that the immigrant community that comes to a global city consists of two classes — the rich and educated that swell the ranks of the managerial class, as well as the poor (perhaps, illegal) immigrant who hopes to garner the fringe benefits (literally living on the edge!) of development from the global city.

“One out of five (20.5%) New York City residents are poor, compared with less than 1 out of 8 Americans (12.1%) nationwide….If they lived in their municipality New York’s poor would constitute the fifth largest city in the US; only Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the rest of New York would have a higher population. … Throughout the last quarter century, the city poverty rate has been 1.7% ahead of the nation’s.”(Poverty In New York, 2002, Mark Levitan, 30/9/2003) New York’s relatively high poverty rate is not simply a result of U.S. racial composition. New York City residents of one race or ethnic group often have high poverty rates than their national counterparts. Read More