Seminar series: City networks and migration governance
The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) in partnership with the Maison Française d’Oxford will be hosting a series of seminars this autumn themed around ‘City Networks and Migration Governance’. These will take place every Thursday between 17 October and 5 December at 3.30 – 5.00 pm at the Seminar Room, 61 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PE. All events are free and no advance registration is required. More information is available here.
Cities of the North as well of the South face the daily realities of migration in terms of housing, education, health or urban management. This necessity of welcoming immigrants is, however, increasingly at odds with the security approach endorsed by state authorities. The so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015 gave a particular salience to this dissonance and a growing number of local governments now advocate in favour of more flexible migration management. City networks have formed in the UK, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Africa and Australia while the role of cities in the management of international migrations occupies a growing place in the agenda of international organisations.
This seminar series is meant to foster a dialogue between migration and urban scholars on the one hand and city/civil society representatives on the other. It aims at giving an overview of the scope and effects of this emerging trend on local as well as international policies. How do cities adjust to the growing securitisation of migration policies? What is the agenda of city networks? With regard to the limited outcomes of the Global Compact negotiations and the sclerosis of receiving states on the matter, shall we expect a “local turn” of international migration governance? What kind of multi-level governance linking local, national and international institutions can one foresee?