A cultural economy perspective on service sector migration in the global city: the case of Hong Kong

This article argues that in order to fully understand the geography of labour migration to global cities, it is necessary to consider economic forces in conjunction with mediating socio-cultural influences. Support for this argument is based on an examination of the pattern of migration to Hong Kong, a city which plays a significant role in the world economy.
Reported here are the results of an analysis of recently released 1996 by-census data, and the authors' interviews with foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. These findings have shown that highly skilled immigrant workers were drawn largely from developed countries, the main sources of inward investment in this city, while less skilled immigrants were drawn from less developed neighbouring labour markets.
While the geographical pattern of immigration followed broadly that predicted from Hong Kong's position in the world economy, the results have revealed that cultural influences such as language and social networks are also important in shaping the economic roles of migrant workers.     

Oiling the wheels? Flexible labour markets and the migration industry

ABSTRACT

The growing commercialisation of migration, often through a multiplicity of labour market intermediaries, is an issue of increasing academic interest. We seek to contribute to an emerging research agenda on the migration industries by exploring how one of the key actors that constitutes it, recruitment agencies, sits at the nexus between flexible labour market structures and migrant labour. Interviews with U.K. labour providers and low-wage employers form the evidence base for an analysis of the strategies developed by recruiters to derive commercial gain from connecting the so-called ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ sides of the flexible international labour market. We seek to contribute to understandings of the analytical categories within migration systems by illustrating how the migration industry interacts with other key stakeholders to structure international migration.     

Forecasting environmental migration to the United Kingdom: an exploration using Bayesian models

Over the next 50 years, the potential impact of environmental change on human livelihoods could be considerable, with one possible consequence being increased levels of human mobility. This paper explores how uncertainty about the level of immigration to the United Kingdom as a consequence of environmental factors elsewhere may be forecast using a methodology involving Bayesian models. The conceptual understanding of forecasting is advanced in three ways. First, the analysis is believed to be the first time that the Bayesian modelling approach has been attempted in relation to environmental mobility. Second, the paper considers the expediency of this approach by comparing the responses to a Delphi survey with conventional expectations about environmental mobility in the research literature. Finally, the values and assumptions of the expert evidence provided in the Delphi survey are interrogated to illustrate the limited set of conditions under which forecasts of environmental mobility, as set out in this paper, are likely to hold.     

A Mandate for Honesty: Jeff Young's No Bullshit Therapy

Jeff Young talks about having been trained to be formal with clients, and his gradual realisation that he could return to the more direct ways of speech he learned as a child, and combine that with warmth. He found that clients and fellow professionals welcomed a therapist who did not ‘beat around the bush’. Together, Jeff and Ron talk about when directness is appropriate, and how directness needs to be modified for particular clients.     

IRR computation and the multi-asset problem

The IRR model for individual assets has been the target of serious criticism over the years. The purpose of this paper is to provide a partial rationale for interpreting aggregate firm data based on IRR calculations of individual assets. More specifically, it will be argued that the value of accounting information will be enhanced as a result of depreciation and income recognition schedules being determined by an individual asset's IRR model.     

A migration channels approach to the study of professionals moving to and from Hong Kong

"This article evaluates the concept of migration channels, identifying the strengths and weaknesses that have emerged from use of a migration channels framework in international migration research. Using professional migration to and from Hong Kong in the 1990s as an empirical lens, it is argued that the meso-scale understanding offered by examining the effect of migration channels is valuable. This is illustrated in terms of the contrasting channels used by different professions, as well by migrants motivated to move by citizenship as opposed to career reasons."     

New directions for management accounting

Using a general systems rationale, this paper develops a theoretical structure for approaching the problem of management accounting. The management control problem is explicated in terms of maintaining a relationship between the enterprise's structure and its environment. An enterprise's structure is composed of three elements (and their inter-relations): a decision and control subsystem; a financial funds subsystem and an operating (physical transforms) subsystem. Portrayed in these terms, the problem of management accounting is shown to require a methodology which is able to take cognizance of economic, sociological, psychological and other aspects of the enterprise system. The model described here provides a general intellectual frame of reference for ordering the problem.