A new book delves deep into Miami’s global potential
By Kylie Wang
From November 12 to 19, the Miami Book Fair International will attract thousands of bibliophiles from all across the world to Downtown Miami. The 40th edition of the fair at the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College will feature a range of diverse programming, including lectures, panel discussions, a street fair, and author talks, with writers from around the globe. Two of those in attendance will be Dr. Ariel Armony and Dr. Alejandro Portes, the researchers and writers behind Emerging Global Cities, a long-form study that examines and compares Miami, Dubai, and Singapore, and the factors that have set them up for long-term global success.
The book also takes a hard look at “global hopefuls,” cities that were poised to attain positions of global or regional importance but have so far failed to do so. New Orleans, São Paulo, and Lagos are the three examples used, all cities with ambitions beyond their current standings on the world stage, but not yet having reached their full potential despite myriad factors in their favor. Hong Kong, which has seen its status as a global city threatened due to politics, is also given consideration. A chapter is devoted to each city in the 300-plus page book.
Of course, Miami’s section is what sparked our interest. The 34-page chapter goes deep into how the city has evolved from a winter resort for northerners to a hemispheric capital and the Gateway to the Americas. Historically, Miami was a “billion-dollar sandbox,” the book claims, “a part-year playground for the rich and powerful.” It was all about sun and fun for retirees and snowbirds from northern U.S. states. Then, the Cubans arrived.
In Emerging Global Cities, Armony, who previously led the Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas at the University of Miami (UM), and Portes, a UM law professor and expert on national development, international migration, economic sociology, and Latin American and Caribbean urbanization, explore Miami’s past. All-important to this historical account is the arrival of immigrant populations from Latin America, specifically the Cuban people who not only stayed in Miami following their flight from Castro’s regime, but reinvented the city culturally, politically, and economically. The impact of Nicaraguans, Haitians, Venezuelans, and other smaller ethnic groups is also explored, though the book emphasizes the Cuban contribution, explaining how and why other ethnic groups failed to establish a stronghold in Miami. In this history lies the key to Miami’s early success as an emerging global city.
By the mid-1990s, Cubans had ingrained themselves in local politics, Emerging Global Cities explains, an “outcome that many native Anglos had feared, as they anticipated that the area would become a ‘Banana Republic,’ similar to failed states in the Caribbean and Central America.” But the close eye of the U.S. government on the area, dampening corruption, combined with the Cuban elite’s recognition of Miami’s advantages, led the city down a different path.
“The exiled business class quickly saw that the geographical location of Miami created unique opportunities. Rather than looking north, they looked south, repeatedly visiting the capitals of Caribbean and South American countries,” Emerging Global Cities says. “Once there, they proceeded to inform wealthy investors and bankers of the advantages of doing business in Miami rather than in distant New York. Investors in Miami received the same protections afforded by American property laws and, in addition, they could conduct business in an attractive climate and in their own language.”
With this history in mind, how does Miami compare to other emerging global cities like Dubai and Singapore? Indeed, what are “global cities?” How does Miami’s ethnic mosaic of foreign-born immigrants position it for success and how does art play a more important role than previously thought? Who were the key actors behind Miami’s emergence and what does the future of Miami look like? How will it be affected by global issues like climate change and local concerns about state and city governments? These questions and more are examined in Emerging Global Cities.
