Participation and contested forms of citizenship in the City of Sanctuary

Abstract

ABSTRACT The UK-based City of Sanctuary movement claims to create welcoming conditions for those who had to flee their homes. Despite the well-documented efforts to integrate migrants, refugees and asylum seekers at a local level, the movement’s practices have been criticised by scholars as reproducing government-prescribed passivity and exclusion of these groups. Through document analysis and participant observation in a Borough of Sanctuary group in London, we examined the City of Sanctuary’s self-representation and mobilisation practices and how participation of sanctuary seekers is discussed and enacted by those involved. We found that the movement’s institutional collaborations have led to an increased professionalisation of the movement which on the one hand offers greater impact and on the other hand risk excluding the very groups the movement is advocating for. Yet by providing material and institutional spaces to enable participation and citizenship, the movement ensures migrants can assert their rightful presence, achieving greater participation as well as amplifying migrants’ voices within and beyond the movement.