Decentralizing Cities for Immigration Integration with Saskia Sassen | reSITE Small Talk

Saskia Sassen explains how a cities size and level of openness play a role in its cosmopolitan development. She highlights the stark contrast between smaller and larger cities hold in this context, as well as their ability to accommodate the influx of not only migrants but also their “thick” cultures they arrive with which ultimately influences the overall quality of life. She compares the degrees in which migrants are received in different cities across the western world, their laissez-faire approaches to immigration and the issues that have risen from that approach. Her vision of future cities draws on the example of the decentralized metropolitan area in London. The UK capital is a huge, multimodal city comprising 22 boroughs, each with their own city center, which resulted in many unique neighborhoods and communities within a larger urban context . She details why this model is ideal for bringing in many new and different perspectives for a city.

Saskia Sassen is a world renowned urban sociologist and professor at Columbia University in New York. She introduced the term "global city" in her work "The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo" published in 1991. Her prolific works, including nine books are numerous studies, have been translated into over twenty languages and she has contributed to The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, The International Herald Tribune, among other noteworthy publications.

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