Strategies of Divergence: Local Authorities, Law, and Discretionary Spaces in Migration Governance

Abstract

This article classifies and theorizes the strategies of divergence that local authorities employ when confronting the discretionary spaces offered by domestic migration law. We propose a distinction between strategies that are either within or outside the perceived boundaries of the law and those that adopt an explicit or an implicit approach to positioning, thus harnessing or downplaying the communicative potential of the law. Based thereon, we introduce a fourfold typology of strategies of divergences that include defiance, dodging, deviation, and dilution. This typology was developed and refined based on field research in local authorities in Greece, Turkey, Italy, and The Netherlands. The case material also leads us into a preliminary exploration of which types of cities and conditions may lead to the adoption of one strategy over another. As such, this article draws attention to the relevance of law within multi-level migration governance and to the meaning of legal ambiguity and discretion as shaped by law and legal interpretation. The strategies of divergence that mould discretionary spaces, in turn, either mitigate or exacerbate legal uncertainty and should be considered a significant factor to account for change in migration governance.

Of Bastions and Bulwarks: A Multi-Scalar Understanding of Local Bordering Practices in Europe

“…In a situation of legal pluralism, in which different interpretations of the right concerned are possible and even compete, the interplay between actors in networks of power can also foreground certain understandings, either to the detriment or advantage of the migrants concerned (Corradi et al 2017;Oomen and Durmuş 2019). The agency of actors (including local stakeholders, such as municipalities) is hereby further shaped by the discretionary spaces that they can inhabit (Oomen et al 2021). Thus, far from considering the state as an "all-powerful and stable constellation of knowledges and practices," the dynamics involved in the actual practices of defining rights within local "migration states" (Coleman 2012: 183) call for a more finegrained theoretical approach, which can be found in multiscalar perspectives on bordering.…”

International migration and the rise of urban militant networks in the Mediterranean

“…Municipalities may adopt policies at the margin of legality, especially when the latter target undocumented migrants. This trend is attested by the various accounts of the strategies of dissent endorsed by municipalities in Europe and North America, from the silent implementation of discrete measures to vocal opposition (Oomen et al, 2021;Darling, 2022). This municipal activism is embedded into a wider movement of radical urbanism, calling for a "right to the city" and the development of urban commons (Carpio et al, 2011;Harvey, 2012;Tsavdaroglou et al, 2019) and adds to the commitment of the volunteer sector in reception areas.…”

Breaking Free

“…545 533 Bauböck, 2020a, p.4. 534 Varsanyi, 2006535 Brodie, 2000Bauder and Gonzalez, 2018;Oomen, 2019, Darling andKauffman and Strebel, 2021;Oomen et al 2021a;Oomen et al 2021b. 536 Bauder, 2020, p.23.…”

“…553 Aleinikoff, 2020, p. 52 554 Orgad, 2020, p.78. 555 Motomura 2016, Oomen et al 2021b, p.2 556 Keuffner, 2017Debela, 2020. this scholarship, many urban citizenship practices of local governments would qualify as local government reform, as they include characteristics of the latter, including but not limited to (i) institutional changes in the local government (such as the establishment of social cohesion, integration, or human rights departments), (ii) institution-wide cross-sectional policies (such as the mainstreaming of human rights, social cohesion or equality principles throughout the local government), (iii) the "intensification of intermunicipal cooperation" and (iv) changes towards more participatory and directdemocratic governance (such as trying to give non-national residents the right to vote) 557 . 558 Again according to this scholarship, autonomy is a necessary factor in enabling local government reform.…”

“…515 Ford, 2001Kaufman and Strebel, 2021;Marchetti, 2020;Oomen et al, 2021b. 516 Gargiulo andPiccoli, 2020;Stahl, 2020;Marchetti, 2020;Oomen et al, 2021b. To explore this question in a comparative manner, this Chapter draws from data collected through field research as part of the Cities of Refuge project in Turkey and Switzerland, with local governments that were particularly proactive, albeit in different manners and to diverging extents, in the provision of services to and facilitation of political participation of non-nationals. Local governments were selected on the basis of their reputation as welcoming localities, from among municipalities of different sizes and socio-economic standings in each national context, as well as to represent different administrative statuses and powers.…”