Migration, knowledge and social interaction: Expatriate labour within investment banks

Investment banks deploy expatriate labour in order to extend their competitiveness and global reach. Equally, expatriate workers not only transfer and exchange knowledge over time and space but of importance is their work culture which is firmly embedded in financial centres through interpersonal contacts and social relations. This paper, therefore, investigates the importance and cultural role of expatriate labour within two British investment banks, in the context of labour market restructuring and redundancies in the period 1988-1993.