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ABSTRACT
This article explores the responses of European local authorities to the public service needs of residents with irregular immigration status and the tensions with national governments to which this can give rise. Drawing on a study of responses by national and local tiers, including a mapping of national legal frameworks on entitlements to health care and education, it identifies factors that lead to divergence between local and national policy framing and responses. Finding that socio-economic and individual consequences of exclusion dominate in shaping local framing of policy responses in contrast to national government priorities, it explores the implications for modes of multi-level governance (MLG) on this issue. It expands on the concept in the literature of ‘decoupling’, contrasting relationships of overt conflict with low-visibility strategies of conflict avoidance; demonstrating the differing forms this ‘shadow politics’ of migrants’ rights and shadow provision of services can take, including arms-length provision through NGOs. Thus the dynamic of MLG is itself one part of explaining the nature of local responses to the challenges that migrants with irregular status can pose.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges with thanks the research contribution of Vanessa Hughes and Nicola Delvino to the study on which this article draws and Jonathan Price for sharing his expertise on migrants with NRPF in the U.K. The author also thanks the interviewees; the workshop participants for their feedback at the Max-Plank Institute, Göttingen, and CES conference, Paris, in 2015 at which an earlier version of this paper was presented; and the anonymous referees for their invaluable comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential’ conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Directive 2008//115/EC on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals; Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime.
2 Four states in particular had significant devolution of responsibility to regional tiers (Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain). Other states had regional tiers with less autonomy and/or municipal government at the local level, in some cases within federal structures (see CEMR Citation2011).
3 Interviewed by the author January 2013.
4 Interviewed by the author March 2013.
5 Irish immigration official interviewed by the author November 2013.
6 See parliamentary debate in which the decision was announced at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120229-0003.htm#12022983000049.
7 Interviewed by the author March 2013.
8 Interviewed by the author January 2013.
9 County councillor, interviewed by the author October 2012.
10 See PICUM Bulletin 11 July 2012, and 18 June 2012: http://picum.org/en/news/bulletins/35144/#cat_25446; and 15 November 2012 on civil society and local council advocacy for health reforms. http://picum.org/en/news/bulletins/37578/#cat_25446 and press release supported by 41 organisations http://www.rosengrenska.org/pdfs/PressmeddelandeRattTillVard20121108.pdf (accessed 2 February 2016).
11 Health and Medical Care for Certain Foreigners Residing in Sweden without Proper Documentation Act 2013. Commission report (2011), Vård efter behov och på lika villkor – en mänsklig rättighet, can be found, with an English summary on pages 31–46, at http://www.regeringen.se/rattsdokument/statens-offentliga-utredningar/2011/05/sou-201148/ (accessed 2 February 2016). The webpage includes a chronological ‘Legislation chain’ including the agreement with the Green Party. See also PICUM Bulletin 12 July 2013 at http://picum.org/en/news/bulletins/41469/#cat_25446.
12 Interviews by the author with Green Party official, and with an advisor to the inquiry, September 2013.
13 This report, accessed at https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/2014/pr-2014-irregular_migrants_italy/ provides references to the cited cases and policy documents.
14 See for instance the press release of ‘We Are Here’ on 30 October 2015 critical of the accommodation Amsterdam provides: http://wijzijnhier.org/ (accessed 2 February 2016).
15 City officials interviewed by the author March 2013 and correspondence dated 29 January 2016.
16 Complaint No. 90/2013 Conference of European Churches (CEC) v. The Netherlands. Decision on the Merits made public 10 November 2014. http://hudoc.esc.coe.int/eng?i=cc-90-2013-dmerits-en.
17 Observations of the Government of the Netherlands to the European Committee of Social Rights on the merits of complaint No. 90/2013, Para 12.
18 A similar duty applies in Scotland and Northern Ireland under separate legislation.
19 Through Schedule 3 of the 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act.
20 See for instance minutes of Local Government Association Asylum and Refugee Taskgroup 18 June 2009 (http://tinyurl.com/ozmazhy), quoting the Director of the UK Border Agency
… the priority must be to tackle the problem at source by addressing the presence or status in this country of the individuals concerned rather than perpetuating and risking exacerbating the problem by making specific additional financial provision for local support services for this category. (Cited in Price and Spencer Citation2015, 23)
21 R (VC) v Newcastle City Council [2011] EWHC 2673 (Admin), 24 October 2011; R (SO) v London Borough of Barking & Dagenham [2010] EWCA Civ 1101.
22 Sanneh & Ors v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2015] EWCA Civ 49: paras 40 and 93.
23 Home Office letter of commitment to NRPF Connect to Local Authority Directors of Adult and Children's Services dated 23 June 2014: http://www.nrpfnetwork.org.uk/Documents/Letter%20to%20Adult%20and%20Childrens%20Services%20from%20Sonia%20Dower%2023%20June%202014.pdf (accessed 22 February 2016).
24 City politician interviewed July 2013.
25 Interviewed by the author July 2013.
26 Interviewed by the author May 2013.
27 Interviewed by the author March 2013.