Decoupling and Teaming up: The Rise and Proliferation of Transnational Municipal Networks in the Field of Migration

Abstract

Cities claim an ever-larger role in migration governance, often by means of progressive policies that “decouple” the local from the national. The literature on this “local turn” has generally failed to recognize how this decoupling increasingly takes place within the context of Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs). On the basis of a database of the 20 most important TMNs in refugee and migrant welcome and integration in Europe and additional empirical research, this article identifies and analyzes their main characteristics, composition, and activities in a multiscalar context, thus contributing to a better understanding of migration governance. It argues that these networks, by means of a wide variety of activities, serve a practical but also a symbolic and jurisgenerative purpose. These implicit and explicit objectives of city networking also account for the proliferation of TMNs witnessed across Europe since 2015. In “teaming up,” European cities not only share practical experiences but also develop narratives about migration that counter national, more restrictive discourses and contribute to the global legal framework, as was the case with the Global Compact on Refugees and Migrants. It is this practical, symbolic, and jurisgenerative role of TMNs, in times of increasingly restrictive national policies, that makes these networks key actors in contesting but also improving global migration governance.

Innovative strategies for the reception of asylum seekers and refugees in European cities: multi-level governance, multi-sector urban networks and local engagement

“…in the 'Cities for Local Integration Policies' (CLIP) which began in 2006 as an initiative of policy makers to network 25 European cities). Yet these alliances have increasingly developed into numerous and sometimes large regional and transnational cooperative networks, such as Eurocities, Intercultural Cities networks, the Global Parliament of Mayors and the recently founded Mayors Migration Council (Oomen 2019b). The alliances draw benefits from exchanging information, sharing experiences and developing strategies collaboratively (Barber 2013; Oomen 2019b; Garcés-Mascareñas and Gebhardt 2020).…”

“…The alliances draw benefits from exchanging information, sharing experiences and developing strategies collaboratively (Barber 2013; Oomen 2019b; Garcés-Mascareñas and Gebhardt 2020). As Oomen (2019b) shows however, there is often great power in 'teaming up', not only to share experiences, but develop alternative narratives. Collective mobilisation is more powerful in contesting nationally restrictive arguments and can also help influence the global legal framework, as 150 mayors of cities were able to do in contributing a city perspective to the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees and Migrants (ibid.…”

Immigration, International Mobilization and Local Governance in Post-Industrial Cities: Turin and Saint-Etienne Compared

“…Scholars and political analysts like Benjamin Barber (2013) have no doubts that if mayors ruled the world, pragmatism would prevail over ideology. This argument resonates with the emerging literature on cities' international involvement on migration issues, which emphasises the cities' quest for knowledge and pragmatic solutions (Penninx 2015;Oomen 2019).…”

“…Secondly, scholars point out how TCNs enable cities to join forces in order to get access to European funding and learn from each other on how to better deal with the complexity of the migration issue (Penninx 2015). Last but not least, regarding local pragmatism, scholars have drawn attention to how local political leaders in different countries, either aldermen or mayors, have mobilised on the European (Scholten et al 2018) and/or international scene (Oomen 2019) to denounce and downplay the ideological inconclusiveness of national governments.…”

Transnational city networks and their contributions to norm-generation in international law: the case of migration

“…o. ), there are many potential outcomes of such engagement, both practical (sharing information, seeking (financial) support) and symbolic (showcasing, story-telling, shaming national governments) (Oomen 2019). One striking outcome discussed less often, however, is jurisgenerative, and involves the setting of standards, often in the form and language of international law.…”