The purpose of this paper is to develop a database for urban immigrant destinations and contrast it
with existing rankin
gs of world cities.
1
Most world city rankings
focus on
economic measurements yet our
research argues that through a quantitative study of immigrant destinations, we can better understand socio
-
cultural change in the global urban hierarchy. In cities arou
nd the world, unprecedented levels of global
immigration challenge us to asses
s
how and where immigrants are challenging the political, economic,
social and cultural dimensions of our cities. Our goal is to add to the range of criteria used to establish a
global urban hierarchy and to inspire others to expand the
ir
methods and measurements of socio
-
cultural
globalization in world cities research.