Rootless to a fault

In the 20th century, the color line was the primary challenge. In the 21st century, the problem is the border line. Today, there are more people living outside their countries of birth than at any time in history, and international migrants now make up the equivalent of the world's fifth most-populous country -- just after China, India, the United States and Indonesia.

As a result, migrant-receiving nations, particularly those in the First World, are scrambling to devise strategies to incorporate and integrate newcomers and their families into their adopted societies. From Germany to the United States, policymakers and the public alike are particularly worried about integrating the poorest immigrants into their social fabrics. It is commonly assumed that socioeconomic mobility is the key to making these newcomers loyal citizens of their new homelands.

But what about the transnational elites who can easily move anywhere they please? Last month, American actress Susan Sarandon vowed to move to Italy or Canada if John McCain becomes president. However off the cuff her comment may have been, it points to the challenge many developed nations and cities are likely to have maintaining the loyalty of their elites as a globalizing economy makes relocation easier.

More than a decade ago, in a posthumously published book, "The Revolt of the Elites," sociologist Christopher Lasch accused the creative class (the group Robert Reich, Clinton's Labor secretary, famously called "symbolic analysts") of abandoning their responsibility to serve as a moral bulwark and stabilizing force in society.

What he could not have foreseen, however, was the extent to which commercial and cultural globalization would further undermine the elites' old-fashioned loyalty to place.

Make no mistake: The benefits of globalization, especially high-level transnational exchange and trade, particularly to the United States, are clear.

Here in the U.S., highly skilled workers and wealthy entrepreneurs from around the globe contribute mightily to this nation's productivity and creativity. Their presence in our cities, and ours in theirs, has fostered a greater appreciation of global cultural diversity. It has spawned a vibrant cosmopolitanism that broadens our collective concern for people who live beyond our borders.