Making sense of trajectories of participation in European city networks on migration: insights from the cases of Turin (Italy) and Saint-Etienne (France)

ABSTRACT

The article addresses the topic of cities’ trajectories of participation in Transnational City Networks on migration-related issues to identify factors and mechanisms of mobilisation. We present the results of a qualitative study on Turin (Italy) and Saint-Etienne (France). Both cities started to mobilise internationally in the 1990s on the initiative of entrepreneurial mayors, yet throughout the 2000s took opposite paths: in Turin, intense participation until 2014 was followed by partial dis-involvement and renewed activism since 2018; Saint-Etienne started to distance itself in 2008 and has not actively participated since then. We show how in the case of Turin, internationalisation has been driven by networks’ professionals engaging their personal relations in boundary-spanning work, establishing connections between public and non-public actors and between the local and international spheres. Such dynamics are absent in the case of Saint-Etienne, where mobilisation on migration has always been mayors-centred.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational city networks
• French and Italian cities comparison
• immigrant integration
• mayors
• local networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. More specifically, 13 interviews were carried out in Saint-Etienne and 10 in Turin. The majority of the interviews (18) in the two cities have been conducted between February and June 2018 by Anthony Clément for his MA thesis . The fieldwork in Turin has been completed by in January–June 2019 and has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 794012. This part of the research included participant observation to a Thematic Event of the network Intercultural Cities, held in Turin from 18 to 19 June 2019. The content of this document represents only the views of the author and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.and has

2. The project was co-funded by the municipality, the national government, the CRT and Compagnia di San Paolo foundations (these latter with a grant of 250,000 Euros each: document TO2, 32).

3. City of Turin website, http://www.comune.torino.it/relint/euromed/euromed.shtml (last access: October 2019).

4. See the press release of the Assembly of the Association International Turin published on http://www.torinostrategica.it/_associazione/(last access: October 2019).

5. Interview with the International Relations Department, 28 June 2018.

6. In the electoral manifesto of the list ‘Five Stars Movement – Chiara Appendino for mayor’ (https://www.chiaraappendino.it/programma/) it is stressed that the promotion of big international events (like the Olympic Games and similar) will be undertaken only on the basis of a preliminary costs-benefits evaluation, ‘to assess the real economic, touristic and employment benefits’ (section Culture and tourism/Big Events. Last access October 2019).

7. See the division of competence between the two departments according to the municipal executive website: http://www.comune.torino.it/giunta/composiz.shtml (last access: October 2019).

8. h ttp://w ww.comune.torino.it/ucstampa/comunicati/article_382.shtml (last access: October 2019).

9. h ttp://w ww.comune.torino.it/relint/progetti/programmi1420/values.shtml (last access: October 2019).

10. Signature followed a proposal presented by the International Relations Department to the Mayor and the executive (Interview with officials of the International Relations Department, 28 June 2018).

11. In 1999, the municipal population was only 180,000.

12. Interview with Michel Thiollière, 1994-2008 mayor of Saint-Etienne, 13 March 2018.

13. Regenera (2004-2007) was funded by Urbact and the ERDF with the goal of favouring the exchange of good practices on urban regeneration. It involved fourteen cities from nine European countries, including Saint-Etienne and Turin.

14. Interview with the International relations deputy mayor of Saint-Etienne, 16 March 2018.

15. Interview with Maurice Vincent, mayor of Saint-Etienne (2008-2014), 29 March 2018.

Additional information

Funding

The research on the city of Turin was funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation in the context of the MInMUS Project, Marie Curie Standard Fellowship, Grant Agreement n. [794012].

Notes on contributors

Tiziana Caponio

Tiziana Caponio, is an associate professor at the University of Turin and a fellow of the Collegio Carlo Alberto, and was previously Marie Curie Fellow at MPC/EUI (2018-2020). Her research focuses on migration policymaking from a multilevel governance perspective. Her recent publications include, with P Scholten and R Zapata-Barrero, eds, 2019, The Routledge Handbook of the Governance of Migration and Diversity in Cities, Routledge, Abingdon.

Anthony Clément

Anthony Clément, is professeur agrégé in geography and a former research assistant at the University of Lyon, France (Triangle research centre, UMR CNRS 5206). His research interests include municipal immigration policies, European city-networks and France–Italy comparisons.