Abstract
This article explores the ways in which city policymakers in Europe frame the reasons for provision of welfare services to migrants with irregular status. In the context of restrictive national legal and policy frameworks, the article explores a tendency toward municipal activism in extending access to services, providing a typology of six policy frames used by policy makers that identify the intended beneficiaries and stated policy aims. Drawing on interviews with local policymakers and documentary sources, the article contributes to our understanding of the reasons why some European cities provide services to this particular section of the migrant population.
Highlights
This article explores the ways in which local policymakers frame their reasons for inclusive approaches toward migrants with irregular status in Europe
We use the term municipal activism here to refer to actions that facilitate access to services for irregular migrants that are taken in spite of, and to a degree mitigating, restrictive national legal and policy frameworks
Mapping of entitlements by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA, 2011) and subsequently Spencer and Hughes (2015) reveals a variable geography across the EU with a level of inclusion permitted, notably to health care and education. While those exceptions provide for a minimal level of service provision by municipalities, such as schooling for children for which specific entitlements are granted in 10 EU states and an implicit entitlement in a further 13 (Spencer & Hughes, 2015), the policy norm of exclusion presents a challenge to municipalities which bear responsibility for the welfare of local residents and for service provision to facilitate it
Summary
Set in the context of largely restrictive national legal and policy frameworks governing access to welfare services for this population, the article provides evidence on the ways in which policymakers justify the provision of services that goes beyond the minimum level required by national law. Mapping of entitlements by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA, 2011) and subsequently Spencer and Hughes (2015) reveals a variable geography across the EU with a level of inclusion permitted, notably to health care and education While those exceptions provide for a minimal level of service provision by municipalities, such as schooling for children for which specific entitlements are granted in 10 EU states and an implicit entitlement in a further 13 (Spencer & Hughes, 2015), the policy norm of exclusion presents a challenge to municipalities which bear responsibility for the welfare of local residents and for service provision to facilitate it. Services that are variously provided to irregular migrants by some cities include night and day shelters, food banks, health care, provision of information, legal advice and representation, preschool and school education, apprenticeships, language tuition and skills training, outreach services to street prostitutes, safe reporting of crime for victims and witnesses, subsistence support, and assistance in reconnection with the migrant’s country of origin (Delvino, 2017)
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