Cities and talent

Abstract

Sydney functions as a global city and a gateway for migration. Sydney as Australia’s foremost
global city plays a vital role in the national economy. This role relies on Sydney’s ability to
attract and retain global talent. A global city connects its nation state with the world, so Sydney
as a global city expands Australia’s global outreach. This thesis argues that migration and the
global city are intrinsically linked. It does so by critically examining the relationship between
migration, global talent and the global city, using Sydney as the empirical case. Despite a
considerable amount of literature on the urban transformations of global cities in recent years,
this research is the first comprehensive, in-depth, empirical examination of the role of new
migration in global cities during the global era. An exploratory factor analysis of a survey of
global talent reveals the factors that influence Sydney’s capacity to attract global talent, and
in turn the factors that drive global talent migration. The analysis of the global talent shows the
main factors that underpin the decision of global talent to work in a global city. The analysis
revealed the importance of non-monetary factors in influencing the structure of the global city
hierarchy, with the main influencing factors for moving made up of a diverse mix of the lifestyle
and cultural dimensions of a global city, as well as personal determinants. The thesis
establishes global talent as the lens through which a holistic understanding of the relationship
between migration and global cities can be better understood.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Richard HU (Supervisor), Lain DARE (Supervisor), Robert TANTON (Supervisor) & David Marsh (Supervisor)