IMISCOE’s annual conference is taking place from June 29 to July 1 in Oslo and Whole-COMM is participating to two workshops and to the roundtable.
June 30, 14.45 – 16.15 – Migration Politics and Governance, Roundtable
Integrating Migrants in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas. Discussing insight from the Whole-COMM project
Organized by Tiziana Caponio (FIERI, Collegio Carlo Alberto, University of Turin) and Birgit Glorius (TU Chemnitz)
For long, the consequences of international migration regarding integration structures, policies or societal reactions of the receiving society have been mainly researched in larger urban agglomerations, and many research results and promising approaches such as for example the notion of “super-diversity” are bound to those types of settlement. This is to large parts due to the fact that voluntary international migration is mainly heading to big cities. However, due to internal distribution schemes, the arrival of large numbers of migrants between 2014 and 2015 has confronted many small and medium-sized towns and rural areas (SMsTRAs) with the settlement of asylum seekers for the first time, and hence gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate “urban” approaches towards integration and diversity development. Six years later it is time to explore the integration policies – eventually – developed and implemented in these localities since 2015, and how these have been taking shape through the interaction of policy actors at different territorial scales – local, regional, national and supranational. The roundtable will bring together scholars researching migrants’ integration in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas and policy practitioners with experience on the field to discuss the preliminary findings of the H2020 Whole-COMM Project from different – theoretical and policy-oriented – perspectives.
Participants:
René Kreichauf, Cosmopolis – Centre for Urban Research
Christina Pope, Welcoming America (Welcoming International Initiative)
Annelies Zoomers, Utrecht University
Bruno Meeus Meeus, KU Leuven
Zeynep Yanasmayan, German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM)
July 1, 10:45 – 12:15 and 13:00 – 14:30 – Migration Policy and Governance, Workshop
Integrating migrants in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas. Perspectives on multilevel goverance, political dynamics and practices of access to rights from the Whole-COMM Project
Chaired by Tiziana Caponio (FIERI, Collegio Carlo Alberto, University of Turin) and Maria Schiller (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
The arrival of large numbers of migrants between 2014 and 2015 has confronted many small and medium-sized towns and rural areas (SMsTRAs) with the settlement of asylum seekers for the first time. Six years later it is time to explore the integration policies – eventually – developed and implemented in these localities since 2015, and how these have been taking shape through the interaction of policy actors at different territorial scales – local, regional, national and supranational. More specifically, the panel addresses the following questions: How have SMsTRA mobilized vis-à-vis the new challenge and in relation to the policies and funding schemes put forwards by other levels of government? Which factors have led to the emergence of multilevel tensions and conflicts? Or are new cooperative relationships eventually emerging and, if so, what different patterns of interaction can we identify between local (policy) actors and regional/national/supranational authorities and stakeholders? And how do practices of access to rights enable or hinder post-2014 migrants’ processes of integration in SMsTRA? To answer these questions, the panel presents papers based on the preliminary results and data collected in the context of the H2020 Whole-COMM Project, providing both country-based (on Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey) and comparative analyses. The first session will be devoted to the discussion of papers on the integration of post-2014 migrants in SMsTRAs in EU member countries.
First part of the workshop: Papers by Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Brussels School of Governance group, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Technische Universität Chemnitz and Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di ricerche sull’Immigrazione
Second part of the workshop: Papers by Sabanci group, CIDOB – Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Collegio Carlo Alberto and Migration Policy Group
