This article presents an outline of the relationship between migration and the city in its evolution over time. I sketch the central aspects of this historical relation as a prelude to examining three aspects of the contemporary scene: the various determinants of contemporary labour flows; the political sources of resistance to international migration; and the renewed protagonist role of metropolitan areas as strategic nodes of the international system. As part of the latter process, I sketch the rise of transnationalism as a novel form of adaptation to immigration and as a potential response to the overriding logic of global capitalism. Implications of a migration centered approach to cities for theory and policy are dismissed.