SSIIM - Urban Policies And Practices - Unesco Chair

Marcello Balbo, International migrations and the “Right to the City”

While globalisation has dramatically enhanced the free movement across borders of goods, firms and money, it has failed to bring down barriers to the free movement of individuals. In recent years most governments have persistently intensified the control measures on the movement of people and their security-oriented migration policies, but in the same years the flow of international migration did not stop growing. What is growing in particular is the number of migrants moving to the cities, including cities of developing countries. It is increasingly evident that migrants represent a fundamental resource for the urban economies of the destination countries, as well as for the economy of their countries of origin which receive tremendous benefits from remittances. Inadequate migration policies, or lack thereof, make it difficult to adequately cater for their needs, in particular housing and services. Yet, not so many cities have explicit policies dealing with international migration, even though there can be no doubt that migration will continue for many years to come. Finally, International migration raises the essential issue of the ‘Right to the City’, the right for everyone, including international migrants, to access the benefits the city has to offer.

Giovanna Marconi, The Experimental Observatory on International Migration in Urban Areas of Latin America

Cross-border movements of people are deeply rooted in the historical, economic and social heterogeneity of Latin America. Over the past thirty years, intraregional migration has substantially increased, facilitated by geographical and cultural proximity and prompted by structural factors in conjunction with socio-political changes and their uneven effect on the countries of the region. Since international migration is mainly an urban phenomenon it would be logical for local governments of Latin America to include it in their agenda of priorities. However, migration is usually considered as a security issue, and the bulk of migration policies is set at a national level, mainly directed at curbing (rather than managing) migratory inflows through restrictive admission regulations and enhanced border controls. In 2006 Università Iuav di Venezia launched the MIUrb/AL Observatory (Experimental Observatory on International Migration in Urban Areas of Latin America), a three-year research project on South-to-South international migration. Strategic objectives of MIUrb/AL are to raise local and international awareness about the issue of international migration in Latin American cities and to create links among cities experiencing similar problems.

David Driskell, Integrating Migrant Youth in the City: Lessons from New York and Nairobi

The paper draw upon the experience of working with migrant youth in two cities, New York and Nairobi: two cosmopolitan centres that are literally and figuratively worlds apart. On the one hand, New York: the hyper-global city, the capital of global capital, the mecca for millions of international migrants seeking economic salvation. And on the other, Nairobi: the capital city of Kenya, a centre of the global aid industry as well as a poster child for globalization’s less glamorous side effects, where the majority of residents fend for themselves in some of Africa’s largest slum settlements. Yet for all their difference, they are also alike: both cities slap you in the face with the glaring gap between the Haves and Have-Nots; both illustrate too well the failures of modernist planning, with the needs of a few carefully considered while the voices of everyone else are unheard or unheeded; both challenge traditional notions of citizenship, its rights as well as its responsibilities; both are outrageously polyglot, whether in the multi-national neighbourhoods of New York or, equally profoundly, in the multi-tribal settlements of Nairobi; and both are homes to a myriad of migrant hopes and dreams-millions of cities in glass globes, accepted as necessary or imagined as possible.

Tiziana Caponio, Multiculturalism from below. Italian cities compared

As concern the existing literature on immigrants’ integration policies, the approach based on the reconstruction of national models of immigrants’ incorporation has not taken into sufficient account the actual complexity of immigrant policies, that often take shape at a local or regional level. This is particularly the case of new immigration countries in Southern Europe, where migration flows have been developing in a spontaneous and unplanned manner, in the indifference of national governmental institutions and with a de facto delegation of first accommodation and integration measures to local administrations and third sector organisations. Thereby the necessity to distinguish between two different layers or spheres of local policy-making is pointed out, the sphere of local government official policies on the one hand, and that of formal and informal practices of implementation on the other. Different actors take part in these spheres, and different strategies are likely to be pursued.

Yu Abiko, Cosmopolitan urbanism: urban policies and the social and spatial integration of migrants in urban settings

Migrants are an economic resource for the urban economies for which they represent an essential source of cheap labour, and for the countries of origin which receive tremendous economic benefits from remittances. International migrants mainly head towards cities in the hope of finding the social networks that will allow them to find a dwelling and a job when they first arrive. But at the same time, they need social assistance with regard to access to education, housing, services and the formal labour market, as most of them are included among the low-income urban population. However, migration policies rarely seem to be sufficient or adequate to provide the assistance for migrants either on a local or a national level. Since, with the tendency toward decentralisation, it is local authorities that are at the forefront of the social and spatial integration of migrants, they should have more and more responsibility in managing urban growth, responding to immigrants’ needs and promoting their inclusion.

Sarah Toner and Paul Taylor, UNESCO and IUAV EGM on Cosmopolitan Urbanism: Urban Policies for the Social and Spatial Integration of International Migrants

Migration is a multi-dimensional and cross cutting issue and its impact on the changing urban landscape is a critical part of the process of globalization. Raising complex and often conflicting sets of policy challenges, it is increasingly at the forefront of local, national, regional and international agendas. This complexity is compounded by the fact that migration involves relations between sovereign states, while resulting essentially from decisions by individuals and families. Migrants may move within their own country and between countries; some people move for short periods, others permanently; some are forced to move, others do so willingly; some people move with high levels of financial and human capital; others are not so well resourced; and so on . Therefore making conclusive generalised observations about migratory flows and their impact is not always possible, but the importance and contemporary political saliency of the issue is such that it is essential to reach some actionable conclusions.

Ada Bazan, MIGRATIONS AND CITIZENSHIP: a view from young people

“Quarters of the world: urban stories” is a strategic project for political training in the citizenship of the young from different quarters in the world and from different associations. The training also concerns the local authorities whose main objective is to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and more participating government in both north and south countries, so that the contribution of young folks should be considered in the elaboration of public policies. Within the project the complexity of the theme migration is viewed through different migratory periods and moves, and different actors: young Moroccans, Dominicans and from elsewhere, newcomer in Barcelona, young from rural to urban area, from Western Africa to Europe with a transit in Morocco, from Morocco to european countries, young French from migration. Through their public policies, the project observe the political attitude of Europe toward young migrants, and that of the African governments toward the young from popular quarters.