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

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Oliver ◽  
Rianne Dekker ◽  
Karin Geuijen ◽  
Jacqueline Broadhead
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seeker ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Urban Networks ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Local Engagement ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract Cities are taking a prominent role in solving global challenges, with a ‘new localism’ inviting a reorientation of power from nation-states downwards, outwards and globally. This special issue explores this phenomenon through extending the existing analyses of multi-level governance and the ‘local turn’ to the underexplored area of asylum seeker and refugee reception in European cities. The special issue draws on research in European cities where new strategies were piloted especially in the wake of ‘the refugee crisis’ from 2015, consolidating the ‘local turn’ evident in immigration and integration policy-making. The collection is in two parts: the first part explores innovation in local governance of asylum seeker reception. Here, case studies demonstrate how cities responded through forging new alliances both vertically and (especially) horizontally in networks within and between cities. The second part explores innovation in practice, analysing novel initiatives premised on local engagement and inclusivity of newcomers within the social fabric of the city. This editorial paper draws out the wider lessons of efforts from this comparative exploration of attempts to rethink asylum seeker and refugee reception at the local level.

scholarly journals Urban Policy in Times of Crisis: The Policy Capacity of European Cities and the Role of Multi-Level Governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 107808742110417
Author(s):  
Roberta Cucca ◽  
Costanzo Ranci
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Policy Capacity ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Multi Level

This article investigates how the policy capacity of urban governments in Europe to deal with the social challenges caused by the 2008-2009 financial crisis, has been strongly shaped by the institutional multi-level governance (MLG) settings in which cities were embedded. We consider the financial crisis as an important ‘stress test’ for urban policy. Urban governments faced a highly complex, trilemmatic situation: they faced not only growing social and economic problems at the local level, but also a process of devolution of institutional responsibility from central to local governments, and important cuts in central funding. Our analysis is based on an empirical investigation carried out between 2009 and 2016 in six major European cities: Barcelona, Copenhagen, Lyon, Manchester, Milan, and Munich. What clearly emerges from the research is that European cities may still show a certain capacity to innovate and govern economic changes and social challenges only if supported by an enabling MLG system.

scholarly journals Multi-level Governance of Integration Policy. Role of the Cities. Comparison of Warsaw and Prague

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-41
Author(s):  
Patrycja Matusz ◽  
Mikołaj Pawlak
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Multilevel Governance ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Multi Level

This paper analyses the role of the cities in the multi-level governance of integration policy. The goal was to analyse the relations of diverse actors in a multi-level governance context and the direct impact of the transnational EU policy to local level actors (that also bypassed the national level). We show how the interconnection of policy levels and the presence of actors in many roles in the process of developing immigrant integration policies resulted in the top-down transfer of policy goals. We also highlight the converse perspective and demonstrate how bottom-up policy initiatives strengthen the position of cities as important players in the multilevel governance, both individually and collectively.

Industrial relations and migrant integration in European cities: A comparative perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-600
Author(s):  
Gemma Scalise ◽  
Luigi Burroni
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Migrant Integration

Migrant inclusion in a society is a process that ultimately succeeds or fails at the local level and cities have increasingly taken a proactive stance in delivering their own policies for integration. The literature on the topic has focused particularly on the cooperation between local political institutions and civil society organizations, underestimating the key role played by social partners. This paper demonstrates the participation of social partners in the local governance of migrant integration in three European cities: Barcelona, Lyon and Gothenburg. Drawing on process tracing analysis and qualitative interviews, the article illustrates the different responses of local unions and employers’ organizations to immigration and the variety of approaches to supporting migrant integration into employment and society. The article argues that these approaches, which take place within different institutional and structural contexts, shape different patterns of migrant inclusion and allow us to explain the new and traditional ways in which social partners operate as social and political actors.

scholarly journals Surveying the Solar Power Gap: Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Emerging Photovoltaic Solar Adoption in the State of Georgia, U.S.A.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Hettel Tidwell ◽  
Abraham Tidwell ◽  
Steffan Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
County Governments ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Social

Despite a global push in the development and implementation of widespread alternative energy use, significant disparities exist across given nation-states. These disparities reflect both technical and economic factors, as well as the social, political, and ecological gaps between how communities see energy development and national/global policy goals. Known as the “local-national gap,” many nations struggle with fostering meaningful conversations about the role of alternative energy technologies within communities. Mitigation of this problem first requires understanding the distribution of existing alternative energy technologies at the local level of policymaking. Using the State of Georgia, U.S.A. as a case study, we present a model for analyzing how existing adoption trends enable/limit conversation at the scale of local governance (i.e., county governments). Leveraging existing work on the Gini Coefficient as a metric for measuring energy inequity, we argue these tools can be applied to analyze where gaps exist in ongoing solar adoption trends. As we demonstrate, communities that adopt solar tend to be concentrated in a few counties, indicating existing conversations are limited to a circumscribed set of social networks. This information and the model we demonstrate can enable focused qualitative analyses of existing solar trends, not only amongst high-adoption areas but within communities where little to no adoption has occurred.

scholarly journals The Local Governance of Arrival in Leipzig: Housing of Asylum-Seeking Persons as a Contested Field

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 116-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Werner ◽  
Annegret Haase ◽  
Nona Renner ◽  
Dieter Rink ◽  
Malena Rottwinkel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Dynamic Change ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Current Context ◽  
German City ◽  
The City

The article examines how the German city of Leipzig governs the housing of asylum seekers. Leipzig was a frontrunner in organizing the decentralized accommodation of asylum seekers when adopting its accommodation concept in 2012. This concept aimed at integrating asylum-seeking persons in the regular housing market at an early stage of arrival. However, since then, the city of Leipzig faces more and more challenges in implementing the concept. This is particularly due to the increasingly tight situation on the housing market while the number of people seeking protection increased and partly due to discriminating and xenophobic attitudes on the side of house owners and managers. Therefore, we argue that the so-called refugee crisis of 2015–2016 has to be seen in close interaction with a growing general housing shortage in Leipzig like in many other large European cities. Furthermore, we understand the municipal governing of housing as a contested field regarding its entanglement of diverse federal levels and policy scales, the diversity of stakeholders involved, and its dynamic change over the last years. We analyze this contested field set against the current context of arrival and dynamic urban growth on a local level. Based on empirical qualitative research that was conducted by us in 2016, Leipzig’s local specifics will be investigated under the umbrella of our conceptual framework of Governance of Arrival. The issues of a strained housing market and the integration of asylum seekers in it do not apply only to Leipzig, but shed light on similar developments in other European Cities.

scholarly journals Surveying the Solar Power Gap: Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Emerging Photovoltaic Solar Adoption in the State of Georgia, U.S.A.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Tidwell ◽  
Abraham Tidwell ◽  
Steffan Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
County Governments ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Policy Goals

Despite a global push in the development and implementation of widespread alternative energy use, significant disparities exist across given nation-states. These disparities reflect both technical and economic factors, as well as the social, political, and ecological gaps between how communities see energy development and national/global policy goals. Known as the “local-national gap”, many nations struggle with fostering meaningful conversations about the role of alternative energy technologies within communities. Mitigation of this problem first requires understanding the distribution of existing alternative energy technologies at the local level of policymaking. To address the limitation of existing adoption trend analysis at the scale of local governance (e.g., county governments), this paper demonstrates a novel method for contextualizing solar technology adoption by using the State of Georgia in the United States as an exemplar. Leveraging existing work on the Gini Coefficient as a metric for measuring energy inequity, we argue these tools can be applied to analyze where gaps exist in ongoing solar adoption trends. As we demonstrate, communities that adopt solar tend to be concentrated in a few counties, indicating existing conversations are limited to a circumscribed set of social networks. This information and the model we demonstrate can enable focused qualitative analyses of existing solar trends, not only among high-adoption areas but within communities where little to no adoption has occurred.

Concept and components of the financial-investment maintenance of local governance

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-112
Author(s):  
Zenoviy Siryk
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Investment Policy ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Balanced Development ◽  
And Function

The issues related to the management of financial resources of territorial communities, financial independence of local governments and forming of efficient financial-investment policy to secure the balanced development of local communities and territories become of utmost importance in conditions of financial decentralization and administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine. The problem issues concerning the forming of financial-investment maintenance of local governance directly impact the capacity of a territorial community that should have financial, material, and other resources in the volumes sufficient to completely accomplish the tasks and function of local governments and provide social services to the population at the level stipulated by national standards. The forming of financial-investment maintenance of local governance is revealed to be directly influencing the capacity of a territorial community that should have financial, material, and other resources in the volumes sufficient to completely accomplish the tasks and function of local governments and provide social services to the population. The expansion of local governments’ competences and granting them greater independence are substantiated to be requiring more responsibility in the financial-investment policy implementation on the local level, forming of conditions to perform the economic activity, and develop businesses by all economic entities, and promoting favorable investment climate in the region. Based on the analysis of approaches to the definition of the nature of “financial maintenance” and “investment maintenance” in the context of the peculiarities of local governments’ activity, the paper suggests understanding the “financial-investment maintenance of local governance” as a set of opportunities and activities on distribution and use of financial resources and territories’ resources for the creation of conditions necessary for the efficient functioning of local governments and realization of their competences.

scholarly journals Are Norwegian Municipality policies enabling intersectoral collaboration in migration health?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Nordström ◽  
B Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Migrant Health ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
Health Work ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Intersectoral Action ◽  
The Social

Abstract Issue Sporadic accounts of initiatives, interventions and good practices in Migrant Health at the Municipality level account for Norways' lower score on “Measures to achieve change” in the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). While the structure and organization at the municipality level should enable intersectoral action (as all under one umbrella), the municipal counties say lack of intersectoral collaboration is one of the main barriers for long-term public health work. Description of the Problem 51 municipalities have an immigrant population larger than the national average 17,8% (2019). In a recent Country Assessment (part of Joint Action on Health Equity Europe), limited inter-sectoral action on the social determinants of health including migration was observed. Although multiple agencies are engaged in attempts to address these issues. While there is a drive to promote public health and primary health care in municipalities, these initiatives do not pay special attention to migrants. In the first stage of this project, we have reviewed municipal policy documents to map policy and measures on public health, migrant health and intersectoral collaboration. In the second stage, municipalities will be contacted to engage them in the implementation of intersectoral actions. Results The desk review and mapping show that only 8 of the “top” 32 municipalities mention “intersectoral” in the municipal master plan (5 were not available online), its mentioned in 9 action program/budgets, but not necessarily by the same municipalities. 15 of the municipalities mention migrants, but rarely in relation to health. We observe that, the size of the municipality, financial resources and support from the County are factors that may play a significant role in prioritising migrant health and intersectoral collaboration. Lessons Advocating for and supporting the local/municipal level for intersectoral action is highly relevant, timely and essential. Key messages Intersectoral action on the social determinants of migrants’ health needs to be implemented through municipal policies to reduce inequities in migrants’ health. Implementation on the local level is the main arena for good public health work and is crucial to ensure good health for migrants.

Women’s Struggle for a Voice in Local Governance: Challenges for Veiled Women in Haryana, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 097152152110305
Author(s):  
Saroj Rani
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Experiences Of Women

This study explores the experiences of women as voters and political representatives at the local level. It includes women’s stories which capture the challenges they faced, their resistance and aspiration for change. The study also looks at men’s perception of women’s political participation. The study uses a feminist perspective with qualitative methods. Tools such as in-depth interview, focus group discussions and observations were used to gather data and information.

scholarly journals Multi-level Governance in Refugee Housing and Integration Policy: a Model of Best Practice in Leverkusen

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Auslender
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
German Government ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Integration Management ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City

AbstractThis paper will explore a model of best practice, the Leverkusen Model, as well as its impact on both the city and the refugees it serves by utilising key stakeholder interviews, civil servants, non-profits, and Syrian refugees living in Leverkusen. The core argument to be presented here is that the dynamic fluidity of the Leverkusen Model, where three bodies (government, Caritas, and the Refugee Council) collaborate to manage the governance responsibilities, allows for more expedited refugee integration into society. This paper utilises an analytical model of multi-level governance to demonstrate its functional processes and show why it can be considered a model of best practice. Started in 2002, the Leverkusen Model of refugee housing has not only saved the city thousands of euros per year in costs associated with refugee housing, but has aided in the cultivation of a very direct, fluid connection between government, civil society, and the refugees themselves. Leverkusen employs a different and novel governance structure of housing for refugees: with direct consultations with Caritas, the largest non-profit in Germany, as well as others, refugees who arrive in Leverkusen are allowed to search for private, decentralised housing from the moment they arrive, regardless of protection status granted by the German government. This paper fills a gap in the existing literature by addressing the adaptation of multi-level governance and collaborative governance in local refugee housing and integration management.

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