Expatriate Staffing in International Financial Centres : London, 1998

The aims of the study were:<br> to advance our theoretical understanding of why financial transnational corporations (TNCs) still require British professional and managerial expatriates to be posted to global financial centres (GFCs) in these times of rapid improvements in information technology (IT), and how such labour accumulates knowledge through becoming embedded in an expatriate lifestyle, undertaken in particular networks and spaces;<br> to collect a new and unique set of quantitative and qualitative data on the existence of British expatriate transnational communities from both TNCs and expatriate themselves, in London, Singapore and New York City;<br> to contribute to the development of methodology in migration studies and the new economic geography/sociology by adopting a multi-method approach.<br> In order to address these research aims, the project had seven major inter-linking objectives:<br> to create a new synthesis of migration studies and the new economic geography/sociology by dovetailing their theoretical writings;<br> to investigate the magnitude of British expatriates who move between London and other GFCs, through the use of a postal questionnaire survey;<br> to explore the strategies of London based financial TNCs in their use of expatriation by interviewing Directors of Human Resources (DHRs) in advanced producer services;<br> to use focus group research to provide a study of London-based repatriated labour;<br> to collect unique data through a combination of semi-structured interview surveys and time-space diaries, thus providing an original insight into the networks of British expatriates in Singapore and New York City.

本研究的研究目标如下：
其一，在信息技术（information technology, IT）飞速发展的当下，探究为何金融跨国公司（transnational corporations, TNCs）仍需派遣英国专业及管理类外派人员前往全球金融中心（global financial centres, GFCs），并厘清此类劳动力如何通过融入特定网络与空间中的外派生活方式积累知识；
其二，针对伦敦、新加坡及纽约市的金融跨国公司与外派人员自身，收集一套全新且独特的英国外派跨国社区相关定量与定性数据集；
其三，通过采用多方法研究范式，为移民研究及新经济地理学/社会学的方法论发展提供助力。
为达成上述研究目标，本项目共设置七项相互关联的核心目标：
一是通过整合移民研究与新经济地理学/社会学的相关理论文献，构建二者融合的全新理论分析框架；
二是通过邮寄问卷调查，调研往返伦敦与其他全球金融中心的英国外派人员规模；
三是通过访谈高级生产者服务业领域的人力资源总监（Directors of Human Resources, DHRs），探究伦敦金融跨国公司的外派用工策略；
四是借助焦点小组研究，针对伦敦归国外派人员展开调研；
五是结合半结构化访谈调研与时空日志，收集独有的调研数据，从而为新加坡与纽约市的英国外派人员社交网络研究提供原创性洞见。