The City of São Paulo in the Context of a Sanctuary City from a Public Governance Perspective

Abstract

The concept of sanctuary cities has been in consistent development since 1971. There are conceptual differences between the contexts of sanctuary cities located in North America and those located in the European Union. The services and benefits offered to foreign immigrants in the city of São Paulo, in North America and in the European Union were identified through documentary analysis; allocated between three perspectives, namely, social, political and legal; and classified under eight criteria of analysis. Thus, the objective of this research was to analyze whether the services and benefits offered in the city of São Paulo to foreign immigrants configure São Paulo as a sanctuary city. The results indicate that the city of São Paulo offers 11% more benefits than sanctuary cities in the European Union and 14% more benefits than sanctuary cities in North America from a political perspective. However, the city of São Paulo offers 15% fewer benefits than sanctuary cities in the European Union and 31% fewer benefits than sanctuary cities in North America from a legal perspective. Finally, an analysis of the social perspective shows a balance in the benefits offered in the three locations. This work contributes to forming a clearer managerial view of the public governance and public policies present in the city of São Paulo and paves the way for the development of future studies on the subject in the social context found within this municipality.