Immigrant integration beyond national policies? Italian cities’ participation in European city networks

ABSTRACT

In the literature on the local dimension of migration policy-making, one can see an emerging interest in transnational cities networks (TCNs). Networks such as Eurocities can represent policy venues that go beyond the limits of vertical relations between national governments and local authorities to directly lobby European Union (EU) institutions. Futhermore, TCNs can offer opportunities for policy exchange and learning, leading to the diffusion of policy innovations and best practices. However, evidence on the concrete functions played by TCNs is still scarce. By focusing on two highly internationalised Italian cities, Milan and Turin, and by taking an actor-centred perspective, this paper highlights how different categories of policy-makers within the municipal administration think about ‘going Europe’. According to our analysis, TCNs, rather than accomplishing their official instrumental goals, play primarily symbolic functions, such as legitimising local integration policy, building a new city identity and positioning the city vis-à-vis other European cities and EU institutions. Yet, this does not mean that TCNs are ‘useless’, since the symbolic resources they convey can be crucial in creating consensus among stakeholders at the local level or lobbying national authorities.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational city networks
• Italian cities
• multilevel governance
• immigrant integration
• local networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The fieldwork for the King Project was carried out between September 2014 and January 2015. The city reports on the cases of Turin and Milan can be downloaded at: www.king.ismu.org. The second round of interviews took place in July–October 2015.

2 Profughi, il modello Milano esempio per l’Europa: diventa caso di studio al Parlamento UE [Asylum Seekers, Milan as a model for Europe is going to be studied by the European Parliament], LaRepublica.it, http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/06/21/news/milano_profughi_europa-117378776.

3 http://nws.eurocities.eu/MediaShell/media/IMPLEMENTORING%20Leaflet.pdf (accessed October 2015).

4 Personal observation as member of the Research Consortium of the CLIP (Cities for Local Integration Policies) Project.