Innovative strategies for the reception of asylum seekers and refugees in European cities: multi-level governance, multi-sector urban networks and local engagement

Abstract

Cities are taking a prominent role in solving global challenges, with a ‘new localism’ inviting a reorientation of power from nation-states downwards, outwards and globally. This special issue explores this phenomenon through extending the existing analyses of multi-level governance and the ‘local turn’ to the underexplored area of asylum seeker and refugee reception in European cities. The special issue draws on research in European cities where new strategies were piloted especially in the wake of ‘the refugee crisis’ from 2015, consolidating the ‘local turn’ evident in immigration and integration policy-making. The collection is in two parts: the first part explores innovation in local governance of asylum seeker reception. Here, case studies demonstrate how cities responded through forging new alliances both vertically and (especially) horizontally in networks within and between cities. The second part explores innovation in practice, analysing novel initiatives premised on local engagement and inclusivity of newcomers within the social fabric of the city. This editorial paper draws out the wider lessons of efforts from this comparative exploration of attempts to rethink asylum seeker and refugee reception at the local level.

Horizontal Local Governance and Social Inclusion: The Case of Municipality-Civil Society Engagement During Refugee Reception in Malmö, Sweden

“…Local migration policies have been developed in cooperation with civil society organizations and has enabled more inclusive responses to the "refugee crisis" than that of the Spanish nation state (Agustín and Jorgensen, 2019;Garcés-Mascareñas and Gebhardt, 2020). Moreover, the focus on the local level of migration governance helps to mitigate the "methodological nationalism" which for long has underpinned migration research (Oliver et al, 2020).…”

“…Although integration policy in recent years has gone through a "local turn, " shifting power horizontally (Scholten and Penninx, 2020, p. 91;Oliver et al, 2020), solidarity is expressed under the constraints of other scales (Agustín and Jorgensen, 2019, p. 102).…”

Éditorial : Hors des grandes villes ! L’accueil des exilé·e·s dans les petits milieux d’immigration

“…Plusieurs autres recherches se sont particulièrement intéressées aux villes d'arrivée (Saunders, 2010), celles ouvertement engagées dans l'accueil, l'intégration et la promotion de la diversité culturelle (White, 2018 ;Broadhead, 2020), comme Barcelone (Bazurli, 2019 ;Gebhardt, 2021) ou Nantes et Strasbourg (Flamant, 2017(Flamant, et 2020. D'autres travaux se sont quant à eux penchés sur les dynamiques d'inhospitalité (Dahdah et al, 2018), ou sur les politiques urbaines explicitement réticentes à l'immigration comme en Italie (Ambrosini, 2013), aux Pays-Bas (Uitermark et Duyvendak, 2008) ou aux États-Unis (Varsanyi, 2011).…”

“…Ne souscrivant pas à une vision fantasmée du « small is beautiful », l'ensemble des auteur•e•s de ce dossier est opposé à l'idée selon laquelle ces territoires seraient nécessairement accueillants du fait de la proximité naturelle offerte entre exilé•e•s et habitant•e•s ou encore du fait d'une vie qui serait plus douce à la campagne. Depuis 2015, des manifestations contre les exilé•e•s ont d'ailleurs fleuri aussi bien dans les métropoles qu'en dehors de celles-ci (Bock, 2018 ;Oliver et al, 2020 ;Deschamps et al, dans ce dossier).…”

Editorial: Out of the Big Cities! The Reception of Exiles in Small Immigration Localities

“…Not subscribing to a fantasized vision of "small is beautiful", all of the authors of this issue are opposed to the idea that these territories would necessarily be welcoming, offering a peaceful idyll and a common understanding between exiles and their neighbours. Since 2015, demonstrations against exiles have proliferated both in metropolitan areas and outside them (Bock, 2018;Oliver et al, 2020;Deschamps et al, in this issue).…”