ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between the development of London's economy and recent patterns of migration, drawing attention to the complex ways in which a global city has absorbed immigrants into an economy whose centrality to the international flows of finance capital has also generated significant inward flows of migrant labour to service the city. It reviews political and social responses to each of these phases and, lastly, the contemporary form of London's labour market is discussed in relation to conceptualising London's status as a global city. The data for international migration is based upon several sources but the main one is the International Passenger Survey (IPS), while the regional distribution of international migrants within the UK is evaluated using estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The financialisation of London's economy over recent decades has tended to facilitate inclusion in the formal economy but has also generated various forms of social and financial exclusion.
