In this empirical study, Saskia Sassen offers a fresh understanding of the processes of international migration. Focusing on immigration into the US from 1960 to 1985 and the part played by American economic activities abroad, as well as foreign investment in the US, she examines the various ways in which the internationalization of production contributes to the formation and direction of labor migration.

‘Any author aspiring to say something new on the subject of migration faces great competition. Classic studies by Max Weber and W. I. Thomas have plowed this furrow. Social scientists from around the world have had a go at it … In this short and densely written volume, Saskia Sassen succeeds at the all important challenge: she develops a new idea.’

Source: American Journal of Sociology

‘This is without doubt one of the most thought-provoking books on international migration to be published in recent years … The theorizing contained in this book is made all the more interesting because it is accompanied by much empirical detail.’

Source: Environment and Planning

‘This book probes an interesting set of problems and, by challenging conventional ideas, will stimulate further research.’

Source: Journal of Economic History

‘In a major contribution, Sassen uses a detailed case study of US economic evolution, 1960–1985, to illustrate the integral links between investment flows, both foreign and domestic, and the influx of migrant labor … The richest recent case study …’

Source: World Development

‘… quite simply the most important writing being produced by any scholar in the US today on the subject of the ‘new immigration’’.

Professor Bennett Harrison - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

‘… probably the best book in the field that I have knowledge of in many years. Professor Sassen is one of the most innovative researchers in the area of urban political economy’.

Professor Manuel Castells Source: University of California, Berkeley

‘… an intelligent combination of theorizing and relevant data which is the mark of a good book’.

State University of New York Source: Binghamton