French participation in transnational migration networks: understanding city (dis)involvement and “passivism”

ABSTRACT

Transnational city networks (TCNs) bring together the characteristics of both supranationalisation and subnationalisation processes. In the context of an increased securitisation and criminalisation of borders, several networks have become more vocal – particularly with the advent of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ – advocating for inclusive changes in terms of immigration, integration, human rights protection and refugee resettlement. How do French cities position themselves in this context of increased transnational activism? In comparing the cases of Lyon, Nantes and Strasbourg and their respective involvement in TCNs over the last fifteen years, our findings indicate that instead of becoming increasingly active, French cities within European networks have developed three distinct processes of disinvolvement, which we identify according to their ‘neglectful,’ ‘testing,’ and ‘competing’ characteristics. We highlight the fact that, in some cases, the activities undertaken by municipal or metropolitan governments in city networks do not automatically lead to transnational ‘activism.’ They may instead be understood as forms of ‘passivism.’ Moreover, contrary to passivity, ‘passivism’ in these cases does not equal an absence of decision-making, leadership or responsiveness, nor does it refer to inertia or a distinctive approach towards refugees and asylum seekers (whether it be welcoming or exclusionary). Rather, ‘passivism’ refers to the agency of local actors in policy-making within a specific institutional context. Focusing on passivism highlights (i) the necessity to disentangle networks’ robustness from its membership, since networks might be robust despite the presence of disengaged members. It also underlines (ii) the effects of the politicisation of migration as illustrated by a change in agenda towards humanitarian issues and by the increased involvement of elected city officials, notably deputy mayors. Finally (iii), it stresses the lack of collaboration with civil society actors in the context of a greater visibility and activism of the French national state regarding the integration of newcomers.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• transnational city networks
• activism
• passivism
• multilevel governance
• politicisation
• supranationalisation
• subnationalisation
• Eurocities
• Intercultural Cities
• France

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In France, deputy mayors are elected by the municipal council. They are members of the municipal majority. Even though, technically, they are not appointed by the mayor, deputy mayors exercise specific powers only because they were delegated to them by the mayor. Before the 2020 municipal elections, there were 21 deputy mayors in Lyon; 22 in Strasbourg and 25 in Nantes. The number of deputy mayors cannot exceed 30% of the total number of a municipal council’s members.

2. This metropolitanisation process led to a transfer of powers from the municipal, the departmental (county) and the regional institutions to the metropolitan ones. Nevertheless, core municipalities can also gain powers from this change, notably when their mayors are also the presidents of metropolitan institutions.

3. The fieldwork started in 2017. Gérard Collomb has been Mayor of Lyon since 2001, except for an 18-month period in 2017–18, during which he was Home Affairs Minister in the Philippe government (Les Républicains, a right-wing party) under Macron’s Presidency (La République en marche, a centre-right political party). Johanna Rolland has been Mayor of Nantes since 2014. Roland Ries has been Mayor of Strasbourg since 2008.

4. Nantes = 7, Lyon = 10, Strasbourg = 6, TCN’s network managers =7, the European Commission = 2.

5. National Convention on Welcome and Migration.

6. Lyon was engaged in IntiCity (a peer review project on the governance of integration policies). Interview 22, Municipal public servant, Equality Unit, Lyon, April 2010.

7. Interview 31, Municipal public servant, Equality Unit, Lyon, March 2018.

8. Interview 30, Ex-deputy mayor, Lyon, March 2018.

9. Critics of this approach propose that the policy, in fact, promotes these neighbourhoods ‘as the legitimate locus of control for social ills.’ (Tissot, 2018 p. 154.

10. Interview 25, Municipal public servant, Cultural Cooperation Unit, Lyon, March 2018.

11. Interview 28, Network manager, Malta, April 2018.

12. Interview 29, Network manager, Barcelona, March 2018.

13. Network managers all pointed out that Lyon’s involvement has always been ‘complicated’ because of their perception of the city’s misunderstood singularities. Interview 1, Network manager, Strasbourg, March 2018; Interviews 28 and 29.

14. Interview 21, Municipal public servant, Lyon, February 2018 and Interview 28.

15. Interviews 21 and 25.

16. Ibid.

17. The Integration Unit was created in 2005. After several changes in names and focus, the unit is currently a joint unit at the metropolitan and municipal levels.

18. At the beginning, Nantes was very engaged through its deputy mayor. With limited resources (including time), public servants invest only in certain networks, and with the resignation of this deputy mayor in 2014, project managers decided to focus on another network: eurocities. Interview 13, Municipal public servant, Nantes, February 2018.

19. Interviews 1 and 13.

20. Toulouse started to participate in the WG in 2017.

21. Interview 13.

22. WG M&I, Minutes, March 2015, Osmangazi.

23. WG M&I, City Updates, Athens, October 2016. ‘Dubliners’ refer to individuals who were registered in a country of first arrival, and then continued on to other countries in the European Union to apply for asylum.

24. Interview 3, Network manager, Brussels, February 2017.

25. Interview 3; WG M&I Minutes, March 2015, Osmangazi; April 2016, Gdansk; April 2017, Lisbon.

26. Interview 3; Interview 11, public servant, Nantes Metropole, July 2018; and Interview 10, municipal public servant, Nantes, March 2018.

27. WG M&I, City Updates, April 2017, Lisbon.

28. Interview 10.

29. Interview 32, Deputy mayor, Europe, Strasbourg, 2010.

30. ‘In 2003, [the European Solidarity Cities Network] was intended to provide local support to new EU member states. Since then, they are fully European, they do not need any help from us. So, in 2008 we changed the orientation of the club, which works under the sponsorship of the Council of Europe on the challenges of cities, in connection with European values. Hence the refugees (our translation).’ Interview 18, February 2018, Strasbourg.

31. Plan d’action conjoint des villes européennes en matière d’accueil et d’intégration des réfugiés, The Strasbourg Club, November 2017. ‘It’s a very concrete guide, very specific, which lays out key areas in the reception of refugees, so it goes from the initial reception, through accommodation, health, education, social integration activities, the language obviously (our translation).’ Interview 18.

32. Interview 1.

33. Strasbourg is often considered an ‘inherently’ European metropole, as embodied in its terminology ‘Eurométropole.’

34. The Social Affairs Unit has a background in providing emergency housing, particularly since 2011 when the Métropole inherited the powers of the Département du Bas-Rhin. Currently, the Métropole is responsible for 3,700 emergency spaces for asylum seekers.

35. Interview 16, Deputy mayor, Strasbourg, February 2018.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to thank the Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (PUCA) and the France Canada Research Fund for their financial support of this research. We are also indebted to Anthony Clément for his remarkable work as a research intern. Finally, we are grateful to the anonymous referees and LGS editor for their constructive reviews.

Notes on contributors

Aude-Claire Fourot

Aude-Claire Fourot is an associate professor of political science at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Her research deals with immigration and with ethnocultural, religious and linguistic diversity in Europe and Canada, particularly in urban settings. She is the author of a forthcoming article in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, ‘Comparing ambiguities: municipalities, Francophone minority communities, and immigration in Canada’, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423920000888.

Aisling Healy

Aisling Healy is an assistant professor of political science at the Jean Monnet University, Saint-Etienne, France. As a member of the Triangle research center, she carries out research focusing on the role local authorities and business leaders play in the integration of migrants, as well as the transnationalisation of reception and welcoming policies. She is the co-editor, with A. Flamant and A-C. Fourot, of Migration policies in a networked age? to be published by the Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (PUCA).

Anouk Flamant

Anouk Flamant is an assistant professor of political science working in the Ghrapes research group at the INSHEA, University of Paris Lumières, France. Her research interests include migration policies, migration in relation to local governance, and the transnational dynamics of cities in the European Union. Recent publications include ‘The local turn in integration policies: why French cities differ’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 43, 11:1981-2000.