Introduction

The discourse of globalisation is inherently bound up with the increased mobility of information, capital, and people (see Arte-Scholte, 2003). It is presented by some as representing a new era in which such flows are becoming quantitatively and qualitatively more significant and in which there is a new freedom of movement (see Ohmae, 1997; Gogia, 2006). However, within this wider discourse the movement of labour between countries has been anything but free and the whole question of labour mobility has become one of the most politically contentious aspects of change. Critics of globalisation point to its inconsistencies. On the one hand its advocates celebrate (and pursue) a vision of transnational capital mobility and freedom, the benefits of which are experienced by a wider cross-section of the world's population in the 2000s than at any time in the past (see Giddens, 2002b). On the other hand, however, the same governments and thinkers that champion the mobility of capital have placed new restrictions and limitations on international labour and population mobility (see Klein, 2002; Bauman, 2005). The era of globalisation has seen the creation of new barriers and mechanisms of control that seek to strengthen the borders between areas of labour availability and those areas where jobs are in short supply. Despite this, processes of globalisation have also indirectly created the conditions through which new forms of legal and illegal cross-border movements of people take place. The labour markets of cities such as London and New York are now characterised by a remarkable diversity of communities and workers from a variety of destinations (see Sassen, 1999b). With the growth in modes of connection between places and an enhanced awareness of the ‘opportunities’ available in different parts of the world, new forms of migration have emerged and are becoming stronger.