The Politicization of Local Migration Policy-Making and the Role of the Far Right
17 December 2025. From 18:30 | Conference | English | Universitat de Girona
This seminar explores the impact of the rise of the populist radical right at the local level and how it affected the policies developed by Western European localities on migrant integration, especially asylum seekers and refugees. Following the so-called “2015 asylum crisis”, large cities are no longer (or are not the only or main) destination for migrants in Europe; instead, small and medium-sized towns and rural areas are. Consequently, the far-right gained votes in these areas. This presentation focuses on the impact of local far-right strength on local migration policymaking, distinguishing between indirect effects and direct effects.The presentation will offer an overview of the research conducted on migration policies adopted by radical right parties in local government in Europe, and will specifically focus on research conducted on the case of Italy, examining a more specific question, namely: how do populist radical right parties in local government “make decisions” related to migration and asylum policy? The presentation will conclude with a number of open questions and research gaps that persist in the study of the far-right at the local level in the migration policy field.
A lecture by Andrea Pettrachin, researcher tenure track at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies of the University of Padua. He holds a PhD in Politics awarded in 2020 by the University of Sheffield. His research primarily focuses on the interplay between migration governance, politics and policy. He has collaborated in publications with well-known scholars working on migration policy and he has published in international academic journals, including the Journal of European Public Policy, Policy Studies, Policy Sciences, the Journal of Comparative Public Policy, Local Government Studies, Territory Politics Governance, Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. In 2024, he published the monography “The Multi-Layered Governance of Migration in Italy. Policy Actors, Networks, and the Shaping of the Refugee ‘Crisis’” (Palgrave MacMillan).
Within the Aula Mediterrània 2025-2026 series.
Co-organised with the Master’s Degree in Migratory Movements in the 21st Century: Concepts, Reality and Actions, UdG
Venue: Sala d’actes, Faculty of Education and Pedagogy (Plaça Sant Domènec, 9, Girona)
Speakers
Andrea Pettrachin
Researcher tenure track at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies University of Padua
Eila Prats
Lecturer of the Master’s Degree in Migratory Movements in the 21st Century: Concepts, Reality and Actions UdGOrganised by
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