![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article examines how three major French cities designed their immigrant incorporation policies in the early twenty-first century. While political and administrative structures are similar in these cities, the favoured approaches – integration, equality, diversity – and the importance assigned to the issue of migration differed. Four factors explain the local shape of immigrant incorporation policies: the relationship with national authorities, the mobilization of European opportunities, the capacities of civil society, and the career paths of policy officers. This qualitative research provides insights into the “local turn” of migration policy in practice. It further illustrates how French cities may overcome a national model, although their fight against ethno-racial inequalities remains weak and inconsequent.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 I use the term “immigrants” throughout to refer to first-generation immigrants. French cities use the terms “immigré”, “foreigner”, “with a migrant background” for the first and sometimes second generation, which illustrates the difficulties in acknowledging ethnic minorities in the French Republic. I will specify when policies and tools focus on both generations of immigrants.
2 This model is supposed to be equal because of the officially proclaimed formal equality between individuals, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or disabilities.
3 I refer to “foreign born” or immigré as defined in the national census. An immigré is a person who was born in a foreign country as a foreigner and who is living in France, with or without French citizenship.
4 A "délégation" in French cities is the topics an adjoint is responsible for during his or her political mandate.
5 Interview 1, deputy mayor for citizenship, Strasbourg, 2010.
6 Observation of the meeting of the Council of Foreign Residents, 2012.
7 Interview 2, deputy mayor for integration, equality, citizenship, Nantes, 2011.
8 The politique de la ville is the policy dedicated to the renewal of deprived urban areas. This positive action is a method to target ethnic minorities who are major inhabitants of these neighborhoods without naming them (Tissot Citation2007).
9 Lyon Municipal Archives, 2253 WP 11, Final report on the non-discrimination policy, 2008.
10 The label « Diversity » is a national label public and private companies can apply for to gain recognition for their efforts to promote diversity.
11 Equality Mission, Annual report on discrimination, 2013.
12 Equality Mission. Annual report on discrimination, 2013.
13 Interview 3, Head of the Equality Mission, Lyon, 2010.
14 Interview 4, Head of the Equality and Integration Mission, Nantes, 2011.
15 Interview 5, member of the council, Strasbourg, 2012.
16 Interview 6, Head of the Mission for Preventing and Combating discrimination, 2012.
17 Interview 2.
18 Lyon Municipal Archives, 2084 WP 1, Working document, Initiative Group for Integration in the City, 2002.
19 Report on housing, Initiative Group for Integration in the City, 2004.
20 Interview 7, member of the working group, July 2010.
21 Interview 6.
22 Interview 1.
23 Lyon Municipal Archives, 2084 WP 1, Working document, Initiative Group for Integration in the City, 2002.
24 Interview 2.
25 Interview 3.
26 Interview 4.
27 Interview 2.
28 La Coordination des Associations de Résidents Étrangers Strasbourgeois [Coordination of Associations of Foreign Strasbourg Residents] was created in 1989 to campaign for local voting rights for immigrants.
29 Interview 8, member of the council, Strasbourg, 2013.