Governing Migration

Abstract

Cities are the product of migration and have a central role in managing its effects. Although the debate about immigration often takes place at national level, or in the case of Europe in the supra-national sphere, it is sub-national units of government that play the major role. They are responsible for coordinating policies and delivering programmes for assisting migrants to adapt to their new situation and for promoting tolerance and good relations between migrant and host communities, recognising that the ‘host’ may also consist of recent or more distant migrants. This process is expressed through a variety of terms – including integration, acculturation, assimilation and settlement – reflecting different perspectives on the place of migration and its social, political, economic and cultural dimensions (Ballard 1990; Niessen and Engberink 2006; Poppelaars and Scholten 2008;Portes and Zhou 1993).