Abstract
AbstractIrregular migrants tend to live in dense urban settings. Cities therefore formulate various policies in support of irregular migrants. Given the US phenomenon of sanctuary cities, the study of these policies has been rather US-centric so far. This letter examines urban policies in support of irregular migrants in Europe's 95 largest cities. Only 27 per cent of European cities formulate these types of policies. We discovered two relevant policy categories: status and services. Only five cities formulate policies that aim to award irregular migrants with a (more) secure status, and 24 cities formulate policies that facilitate access to city services. Our mixed-methods analysis suggests that status policies take advantage of policy-making discretion whereas service policies hinge on the availability of local resources. Yet, there are no simple explanations for the observed policy diversity that is the product of place-based policy-making.
Highlights
These urban policies are mostly discussed under the label of ‘sanctuary cities’, though sanctuary cities are a particularity of US federalism because US local governments are not obliged to cooperate with federal immigration authorities
This letter geographically expands sanctuary city research by comparatively examining how European cities address the precarious situation of irregular migrants
We offer an inductively built policy categorization that distinguishes between urban policies that award a secure status and policies that facilitate access to city services
Summary
Cities are at the forefront of formulating policies that aim to improve the precarious situation of irregular migrants.1 These urban policies are mostly discussed under the label of ‘sanctuary cities’, though sanctuary cities are a particularity of US federalism because US local governments are not obliged to cooperate with federal immigration authorities (see, for example, Collingwood and Gonzalez O’Brien 2019, Mancina 2016). This letter provides a descriptive analysis of policies in support of irregular migrants in European cities based on an extensive data-collection and data-categorization process. Research design We survey urban policies in support of irregular migrants in all 95 European cities that have more than 350,000 inhabitants.
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