Migration Governance at the Local Level

Cities, towns and regions are where migration is most directly experienced and, increasingly, where it is governed. Large metropolises, small and medium-sized municipalities and rural localities alike receive migrants and are expected to respond, often without commensurate competences, resources or influence over national decisions. Local-level migration governance has therefore become a distinct field of political science inquiry, relevant to established and new destinations, to places of transit and to communities of origin across all world regions.
Local responses take many forms. They may be codified in strategies, integration plans, budgets and dedicated institutions, or emerge as informal, improvised and everyday practices. They span reception and housing, education, employment, health, social services, language learning, culture, safety and social cohesion, anti-discrimination, and civic and political participation. They involve a wide range of actors: local and central authorities, civil society organisations, migrant and diaspora associations, religious communities, grassroots and volunteer initiatives, businesses, employers' organisations, trade unions and chambers of commerce, as well as international organisations and donors whose programmes and funding shape what localities are able to do.
We welcome papers addressing, among others: relations between levels of government, including cooperation, decoupling and open conflict; decentralisation and the (re)allocation of competences; the localisation of global and regional frameworks and commitments; city networks and transnational municipal cooperation; the politicisation of migration in local politics and elections; local democracy, accountability and the participation of migrant residents; capacity, expertise and funding; the specific situation of small and rural localities; and the effects of local action on the lives of migrants and on receiving communities.
Theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions are equally welcome, including single-case, comparative and cross-national studies and policy- and practice-oriented work. We encourage submissions from all world regions and from different disciplinary traditions, as well as from early-career scholars, and we are particularly interested in comparisons that bring together contexts rarely studied side by side.