European Journal of Spatial Development

Migrant integration in the EU. The role of place-based policies

Carlotta Fioretti — 2023-09-01

This special issue examines the integration of migrants at the local level by investigating the European Union's role in this context through place-based policies. Traditionally, migration policy has Europeanized, while migrant policy has become more local. This special issue explores also how local authorities contribute to the governance of migrant integration policies beyond mere implementation. It highlights the EU's recognition of cities in this process and investigates EU-funded policies for urban and local development that foster migrant inclusion. The contributions feature case studies from various territories and underscore the role of place-based policies in promoting migrant integration, agency and citizenship. These insights are particularly relevant in the context of Southern European countries, which have unique migration dynamics.

Place-based Guaranteed Minimum Income in Barcelona: (un)intended inclusionary policy for migrants

Laura Colini — 2023-09-01

Discussions about Basic Income have gained traction recently when debating possible reforms of the welfare state, how to combat poverties and wealth inequalities, and to counteract job losses in the aftermath of the Pandemic. The role of cities engaging in various forms of basic income, such as the Guaranteed Minimum Income, and how they impact specific target groups as migrants and refugees, is still understudied. At the peak of the migration wave in Europe between 2015 and 2016, the European programme Urban Initiative Actions funded a pilot project on Basic Income led by the city of Barcelona. The scheme, called B-MINCOME, is meant to test the efficacy and effectiveness of combining a passive economic support of cash-transfer and active labour market policies geared toward their inclusion and re-insertion in the labour market. In particular, thanks to the inte-gration of local policies and the cooperation across departments, the project has impacted gender inequalities and indirectly helped the regularisation of undocumented migrants. Illustrating the Barcelona case study, the paper demonstrates that first, the approach adopted by B-MINCOME creates (unintended) benefits to migrants, second, that the combination of European and city level funds has fostered experimentation in terms of service design and provisions, and third, that local experimentations can further inform and challenge the design of public policies on inclusion at different scales.

When home and work are not enough. The challenge of international migrants’ agency in the Italian Alps

Andrea Membretti — 2023-09-01

Even when they have access to housing and employment, international migrants struggle to develop their own agency, i.e. the capacity to act in their own life contexts, exercising citizenship rights within substantive inclusion processes in the wider communities. The territorial context in fact, especially in rural and mountainous areas such as the Alpine ones analysed here, seems in many ways to represent a limit to the development of capacities and exercise of rights. Difficulties in accessing public space and public sphere, scarce social recognition, low status, housing isolation (as is the case of those who live in small mountain villages), professional ghettoisation: these are factors that, even in presence of an acceptable working and housing inclusion, make it difficult for international migrants to exercise their rights, to have their skills recognised, and, ultimately, to develop an agency genuinely linked to their capabilities.

In this article, with reference to the action-research activities carried out in 2020-22 by the Horizon2020 MATILDE project in the Italian Alpine areas of South Tyrol and the Metropolitan City of Turin, attention is focused on the policies that could favour the effective migrants’ agency in mountain territories.

Immigrant integration in ITI/SUD strategies: The case of Athens, Greece

Nikos Karadimitriou — 2023-09-01

Foreign immigration from low-income countries to the Athens Functional Urban Area (FUA), started in earnest in the early 1990s. However, the first integrated territorial development instrument which covers immigrant integration (the Integrated Territorial Investments- ITI), was introduced in the mid-2010s as a result of adopting relevant EU Regulations.

In the Programming Period 2014-2020 there were 4 ITIs approved for funding in Athens FUA. They focus on innovation, economic growth and social cohesion but rarely mention immigrants and refugees per se. The paper argues that this approach, followed by all four Strategies, is a rather generic feature of the country’s governance modalities, in an ongoing process of Europeanization.

The paper explores the rationale behind the way ITIs were implemented in Athens’ FUA, and offers insights as to how immigrant issues could be further mainstreamed in Sustainable Urban Development strategies in the future.

Unpacking the Area-Based Approach for Sustainable Urban Development in Europe: Policies and Challenges for Migrants Inclusion in the Metropolitan Area of Venice

Paola Briata — 2023-09-01

The paper aims at disentangling the area-based approach as promoted by the EU to bring about integrated sustainable development in European urban areas. In particular, the paper looks at how this approach has evolved over time and to what extent it has been used to foster the inclusion of migrants through a territorialised or spatial perspective.

This paper draws on the experience of the metropolitan area of Venice and the two Sustainable Urban Development strategies implemented there within the framework of the EU cohesion policy 2014-2020. It presents general reflections that shed light on the meaning and scope of the area-based approach in contemporary European cities, as well as the challenges that policy-makers encounter when putting it into practice.

In particular, the paper acknowledges the attention to broader scales ‘beyond the neighbourhood’ that frames current EU policies for urban areas, but considers it insufficient. Instead, attention should also be given to a more granular scale that in certain cases, may involve single streets, part of streets, or even single buildings.