And it is not just New York, Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, or other powerhouses of the developed world that dominate this global scene. Cities as diverse as Berlin, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Bangkok, Mexico City, and Budapest, Hungary, are emerging as world powers in their own right. While these trends can bring enormous prosperity to certain locales, they also increase social and economic inequities. Globalism's sweep is far from uniform. As Barcelona, Spain, and Singapore flourish, other cities, especially old industrial or port cities such as Detroit and Liverpool, United Kingdom, are left further and further behind.
Disparities also increase among cities in the same country.
The environmental implications of these economic changes are significant. As cities compete with one another to attract manufacturing and other services, the bargaining chips are sometimes cheap labor and lax environmental concerns. In addition to economic activity, major demographic forces underlie urban growth. The high rate of natural increase in these cities, however, does tend to follow migration, because most migrants are of reproductive age. The importance of migration varies considerably by region, and migration flows in all directions, not just rural to urban.