Migrant knowledge workers: An empirical study of global Sydney as a knowledge city Richard Hu ⇑ Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT 2601, Australia article info Keywords: Migrant knowledge workers Global city Knowledge city Sydney abstract Global Sydney is essentially a knowledge city. The global Sydney thesis has focused on Sydney’s perfor- mances in the knowledge-based economy, especially the advanced producer services, in an increasingly integrated world economy. Sydney’s emergence as a global city has been inseparable from its migrants from overseas and elsewhere in Australia. This study aims to bridge the theses of global Sydney and migration. The focus is on migrant knowledge workers employed in the knowledge-intensive industries and highly skilled occupations, which are the most reflective of Sydney’s knowledge capacity. Using data from the 2011 Australian Census and a community survey in the Sydney region, this study reveals new insights into the different patterns between international and internal migrant knowledge workers in terms of social–economic backgrounds, drivers for moving to Sydney, and employment before and in Sydney. The findings are useful to better understand migrant knowledge workers in global Sydney, and to contribute to the global city discourse and knowledge city research. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A global city is first of all a knowledge city. One critique to the discourse of global city and its knowledge capacity is that it is eco- nomic–centric and has not tackled migration to the extent it should (Benton-Short, Price, & Friedman, 2005; Ewers, 2007; Samers, 2002). Using economic measures as criteria of global cities is one dimensional, and fails to capture the multiple aspects of the relationship between globalization and cities. Sassen (1999) ar- gues that we need to conceptualize globalization in broader senses than just the internationalization of capital and finance, and that migration should be seen as an equally central component of glob- alization as trade and finance. Flows of people and knowledge workers should not be separated from economic globalization. Freeman (2006) contends that people flows are fundamental to creating a global economy and that the interplay among immigra- tion, capital, and trade is essential to understanding the way glob- alization affects economies. In the global city discourse, there should be an alternative research agenda to redress the lack of focus on the relationship between global cities and migration (Samers, 2002). This article is an effort to link global city and migration, utilizing Sydney as a case study. It pays attention to the migrant knowledge workers (MKWs) to capture the essential- ity of global city as a knowledge city. Sydney is Australia’s leading global city. Global Sydney is essen- tialized in its knowledge capacity. The global Sydney thesis has been argued and testified by international and local writers (see Baum, 1997; Beaverstock, Taylor, & Smith, 1999; Connell, 2000; Daly & Pritchard, 2000; Fagan, 2000; Friedmann, 1986, 1995; Godfrey & Zhou, 1999; Hu, 2012a; Hu, Blakely, & Zhou, 2013; McNeill, Dowling, & Fagan, 2005; Searle, 1996, 1998; Searle & Valence, 2005; Taylor, 2004; Taylor et al., 2011). Likewise, economic global- ization is the core of the global Sydney thesis, focusing on its capacity of providing global services that are knowledge-based. Meanwhile, Sydney’s rise as a global city has been accompanied by growing foreign-born population (Burnley, 2000; Hugo, 2008). The 2011 Australian Census indicates that Sydney has the largest population, the highest percentage of foreign-born population, and the most diverse ethnic groups, of all Australian major cities. In 2001–2011, metropolitan Sydney’s foreign-born living popula- tion increased from 31% to 34%, and foreign born working popula- tion increased from 36% to 40%. This trend is more prominent in central Sydney, where the knowledge-intensive sectors of global Sydney tend to concentrate. In the same period, central Sydney’s foreign-born living population increased from 31% to 38%, and for- eign-born working population increased from 40% to 45%. This article aims to link global Sydney with migration through the nexus of MKWs to capture the essentiality of global Sydney as a knowledge city. Using data from the 2011 Australian Census and a community survey in the Sydney region, it compares the dif- ferent patterns between international and domestic MKWs in http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2014.02.011 0957-4174/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Tel.: +61 2 6201 2575. E-mail address: richard.hu@canberra.edu.au Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 5605–5613 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Expert Systems with Applications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa