Urban resilience and migration governance in Tunisia’s unstable political environment

ABSTRACT

Tunisia is discovering a new migration pattern, with new arrivals staying rather than transiting, given the agreements between the EU and Tunisia to secure their borders. And this is happening in an extremely unstable environment that oscillates between democracy and autocracy. In this scenario, Tunisian cities are becoming catalysts for migration governance resilience. Drawing on the extensive literature on urban resilience but applied to pressures caused by human factors, this article proposes in the first section to use this category of analysis in the under-researched field of urban migration governance. In the second section, the main sources and methodology of the fieldwork conducted in July 2021 will be briefly presented before reviewing the Tunisian context from a city perspective. Then, in a third section, we will turn to the main findings that establish that migration governance and urban resilience go hand in hand for the ongoing transformative democratic process in Tunisia, or its stagnation. Concluding remarks will assess the empirical potential of the urban resilience approach for the analysis of similar processes in this Mediterranean sub-region.

KEYWORDS:

• Democratization
• autocracy
• migration governance
• urban resilience
• Tunisia

Acknowledgements

I owe my gratitude for their time, openness, and implication to all the interviewees mentioned in note 4. Warm thanks to Aida Casanovas, who assisted me during the whole stressful research process. This article has benefited from a three-year (2019-2022) Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network Program (Project Reference: 611260-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPJMONETWORK) entitled “Mapping European Mediterranean Migration Studies” (EUMedMi) and coordinated by GRITIM-UPF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data used from fieldwork (interviews) have followed standard ethics and consent with signatures.

Notes

1. See the definition in Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catalyst.

2. The interviews were held between 17^th and 23^rd of July 2021, and with an average of 1 hour. Hence, the answers do not contain references to the recent autocratic process lead by the same president. But references to the autocratic/democratic unstable frame was constant. The interviews were performed in French. All quotes are translated by the same author.

3. Imen Ouardani [IO] (1st Deputy Mayor, Sousse). - Adnen Sass [AS] (Policy officer, in charge of international cooperation, Sousse) - Nabila Hamza [NH] (Deputy Major, La Marsa) - Mohamed Wajdi Ayd [MWA] (Deputy Major, Sfax and Chairman of the Commission for Decentralized Cooperation and External Relations) - Mekki Larayedh [ML] (Major of Zarzis) - Hassan Boubakri [HB] (Professor at University Sousse) - Chiheb Hafi [CH] (General Secretary for international cooperation, Zarzis) - Youssef Boucaniers [YB] (Cemetery Manager, Zarzis) - Adel Brough (AB] (Researcher on migration at Zarzis, University Sousse).

4. The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet is a group of four CSOs, representing four main sector that were central mediators in the effort to consolidate the democratic process following the 2011 Jasmine Revolution. These were: The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT, Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA, Union Tunisienne de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat), The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH, La Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme), The Tunisian Order of Lawyers (Ordre National des Avocats de Tunisie).

5. Organic law n ° 2018–29 of May 9, 2018, relating to the code of local authorities. Retrieved (in French): http://www.collectiviteslocales.gov.tn/fr/code-des-collectivites-locales-2/.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the European Commission [611260-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPJMO-NETWORK]