Local Governance and Collaboration with Migrant Associations

Abstract

Subnational levels of government are increasingly involved in managing migration, which is one of the key factors in developing the economic potential of a region in the context of globalised competition. Local governments, however, bear the burden of creating and maintaining positive conditions for civil coexistence and social cohesion for new arrivals in the short and medium term, taking into account their different legal statuses, which can be classified on a continuum from regular to irregular. In the service-based economies of advanced countries, cities are also among the main areas of settlement for immigrants at different stages of their migration journey (irregularity, instability, stabilisation in progress or achieved). Migrant communities, through their organisations, act as active agents in the production of informal welfare and in everyday cultural mediation. This is a form of agency that lies on the margins of the institutional political space but often compensates for the absence of the state or municipality in guaranteeing access to essential services, such as legal support, housing, education or health guidance.