ABSTRACT
The ubiquitous process of globalization involves not just the cross-border integration of markets (products, inputs, capital, etc.), but also the long-distance movements of people. International migration is very much part and parcel of the emerging global mosaic of regional economies. Highly-skilled immigrants from developed economies move to places abroad where they can make the most of their specialized skills. Migrants from less-developed countries, many of them relatively lacking in educational qualifications, also flock to the advanced metropolitan areas that make up these regional economies. They have an impact on labor, housing, and product markets in these advanced urban economies. But they also affect these metropolitan areas in a more direct way by initiating economic activities as entrepreneurs. Last year, the American magazine, Business Week, devoted the cover article “Unsung Heroes” to the contribution these immigrant entrepreneurs from less-developed countries make to Western European economies by “creating thriving businesses and thousands of jobs” (Business Week 2000). Two of these unsung heroes in Business Week are based in Amsterdam: Rahma El Mouden, a Moroccan immigrant who started working as a housekeeper and now owns her own thriving firm, Multicultural Amsterdam Cleaners, which employs 75 workers, and Michael Frackers, the son of Indonesian immigrants who has started a software firm in Amsterdam.
