Responses of Cities To Migrants With Illegal Status: Factors, Frameworks And Implications for Multilevel Governance In Europe

2 May 2018. From 18:30 | Workshop | English | IEMed, Barcelona

Some cities offer basic services in relation to the “expectations” of citizens, such as access to a universal health system, free education or relevance to the labor market. However, despite the expansion in the provision of basic services, in the case of irregular immigrants, these are usually offered through NGOs.
This situation of decoupling and mismatch between the services offered by the state and the real demands of immigrants, responds to a clear argument: “cities claim that exclusion prevents them from achieving their goals.” Among the factors that cause the progressive exclusion of immigrants, the following stand out: legal obligations, economic conditions, socio-economic factors, cultural values and the collective imagination of each society, governance and administration specific to each city or country, and even the characteristics of the political party in power in a given period.

Sarah Spencer explores the scope of providing services for migrants with “irregular immigrant” status in the 28 countries of the European Union in a study conducted with the help of the Open Society Fellowship and Action Grant that highlights the policies adopted at the national, regional and municipal levels.