Moderator: Charles Roger (IBEI)

City networks involved in migration issues have mushroomed around the world over the last decade. Some gather a few cities from a local or a national area, others deploy at continental or even a global scales. Some have a militant agenda challenging migration policies, others are initiated by national and international organisations. Despite this diversity, international organisations attempt to co-opt city networks to build up a migration governance system that would rely on non state actors. This paper will address this issue by first mapping the diversity of migration related city networks around the world. It will then examine the efforts of IOM and other international organisations to include these actors into the broader architecture of international migration governance.

Thomas Lacroix is CNRS research fellow in geography. He works on the relationships between immigrant transnationalism and the state. His work initially focused on Indian and North African transnationalism, with a specific intrerest in their effects on development and integration. His research now focuses on city networks and the building of a local governance of international migrations. Thomas Lacroix is former Migrinter deputy director. He is currently associate editor of Migration Studies and research associate at COMPAS, CERI and Migrinter. He is fellow at the Institut Convergence Migrations. He published in 2016 "Hometown Transnationalism. Long Distance Villageness among Indian Punjabis and North African Berbers" (Palgrave), and "Migrants: l'impasse européenne" (Armand Colin) and "International Migration and Local Governance" (with A Desille, Palgrave) in 2018.

Recommended Readings:

• Del Biaggioa, C., T. Rossettob and E. Boriac. 2019. “Mapping Local Resistance to Anti-Immigration National Law: A Carto-Essay.” Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography 1 (8): 89-98.

• Lacroix, Th. And A. Desille. 2018. “Introduction.” In International Migrations and Local Governance: A Global Perspective, edited by Th. Lacroix and A. Desille. London: Palgrave Macmillan, chapter 1.​