Reframing labour market mobility in global finance: Chinese elites in London’s financial district

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I use the case of elite Chinese financial mobility to London’s financial district to argue that comparatively neglected forms of elite financial migration from beyond the Global North provide important insights into the changing geographical form, and labour market practices within, leading international financial centres. Empirically, the paper identifies a distinctive geographical footprint of Chinese financial mobility to London in terms of both financial services activity and residential choices. Theoretically, I argue that explaining this geography requires work on highly skilled migration that typically privileges the economic motivations underpinning mobility to engage more fully with wider debates in economic geography that examine the inter-dependencies and inter-relationships between states and markets. These findings raise important questions surrounding the durability of Chinese finance in London, its relationship to global finance in London more generally, and wider understandings of elite financial labour markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobility
• expatriation
• Chinese banking and finance
• RMB internationalisation
• City of London
• elites

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Networks in Finance Workshop at Manchester Business School in December 2016. I would like to thank the audience at that event and Adam Leaver and Daniel Tischer for their invitation and engagement with my work. I would also like to thank Elaine Watts who prepared the maps, the individuals who gave up their time to be interviewed as part of the wider research project and the comments from four anonymous reviewers, David Bassens and Bas van Heur that have improved this version of the paper. Any remaining errors remain mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Economic and Financial Dialogues have been held between monetary and finance ministers in UK and China since 2008 and typically include announcements concerning significant regulatory changes aimed at developing London’s role within RMB internationalization.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy [MD130065].