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PACS - Immigration und die regionale Ebene

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PACS - Immigration und die regionale Ebene - Eurac Research

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Eurac Research ist ein privates Forschungszentrum mit Sitz in Bozen. Unsere Wissenschaftler widmen sie sich einem Thema: Zukunft zu gestalten.

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<div>In dieser Forschung werden subnationale und insbesondere regionale Antworten auf Immigration und Integration untersucht. Dabei liegt der Schwerpunkt derzeit auf drei in Wechselbeziehung stehenden Forschungsdimensionen: der Gegenüberstellung von Integrationsdiskursen und Integrationspolitiken und dem Vergleich derselben zwischen Regionen mit und ohne nationalistischen Mobilisierungen; der Bewertung des Verhaltens von politischen Parteien in Bezug auf Migration, wobei das Augenmerk vor allem auf regionalistischen und ethnischen Parteien liegt; sowie der Evaluation der Rolle von Regionen in der Gestaltung der Asyl- und Aufnahmepolitik, mit einem besonderen Fokus auf Grenzregionen und auf den Beziehungen zwischen Regierungsebenen. </div>

<div>In dieser Forschung werden subnationale und insbesondere regionale Antworten auf Immigration und Integration untersucht. Dabei liegt der Schwerpunkt derzeit auf drei in Wechselbeziehung stehenden Forschungsdimensionen: der Gegenüberstellung von Integrationsdiskursen und Integrationspolitiken und dem Vergleich derselben zwischen Regionen mit und ohne nationalistischen Mobilisierungen; der Bewertung des Verhaltens von politischen Parteien in Bezug auf Migration, wobei das Augenmerk vor allem auf regionalistischen und ethnischen Parteien liegt; sowie der Evaluation der Rolle von Regionen in der Gestaltung der Asyl- und Aufnahmepolitik, mit einem besonderen Fokus auf Grenzregionen und auf den Beziehungen zwischen Regierungsebenen.</div>

[partially externally funded]In October 2017, a Kurdish disabled teenager died on the streets of Bolzano, after he had been denied shelter for four consecutive nights. The UNHCR condemned the system of accommodation for asylum seekers in South Tyrol, Italy’s most Northern province, arguing that its regulations are “violating national and international norms”. In contrast, in 2019 Wales declares itself to be the first “Nation of Sanctuary”, and hence the first European region embarking on the sanctuary movement which has been swapping over from US cities and states: In 2017, the state of California declared itself to be a state of sanctuary, enacting the California Senate Bill 54 to contest federal legislation and prevent federal authorities from implementing restrictive policies on its territory. This provoked two responses. On the one hand, it led many more states in the US to follow, advancing and rescaling the sanctuary movement in the US from the local level to the state level, with currently 11 out of 50 states being “sanctuary states”. On the other hand, the declaration of a sanctuary state fuelled the evolution of anti-sanctuary movements of other states, as well as of anti-sanctuary cities within sanctuary-states. These episodes show that regional governments have started to compete with local, national and even supra-national actors for ownership to regulate immigration, asylum, and integration and set their own, distinctive policy priorities.At the national level, migration is a contested issue - not just since the ‘long summer of migration in 2015’. Right-wing populists are successfully gaining votes by propagating a nativist ideal of the nation that needs to be protected from immigrants and refugees through closed borders and restrictive migration policies. However, the conditions for immigrants’ daily lives are often set at a lower level of governance, by regional authorities, and local actors. While cities have long since been declared as the main agents in immigrant integration, regions, Bundesländer, cantons and province are “later-comers”: The rescaling of social policy to the sub-national level (Vampa, 2016; Paquet 2020) has turned immigrant integration into a major competence of regional authorities. Across the globe, decentralization reforms have decisively increased regional authority over policy areas directly related to steering processes of immigrant integration (Hooghe, Marks, Schakel, Niedzwiecki, Chapman Osterkatz & Shair-Rosenfield, 2016; Joppke & Seidle, 2012; Keating, 1998; Paquet, 2014; Spiro, 2002). This trend has not been restricted to federal systems. Even in unitary states, central governments have enabled regional and local authorities to ‘put their spin on social policies and thereby on migrant integration strategies’ (Ireland, 2006, p. 378). This raises the question whether regions provide havens of social solidarity for immigrants, whether they replicate national dynamics of politicization and welfare chauvinism, or whether the “local pragmatism” prevails. “Immigration and the regional level” (IMMI-REG) is a framework research initiative exploring comparatively immigration and integration policies and approaches of subnational units, with a particular focus on regions. IMMI-REG integrates multiple research projects concerned with regional migration governance, with the characteristics of regional action in immigration and integration and with the drivers of regional involvement with these issues. Currently, the following single research projects and activities are pursued: <ul><li>a meta-analysis of the literature on "immigration and the regional level", with a particular focus on Europe and North America;</li><li>the dissemination of the analysis of data on regional approaches to immigrant and refugee integration as part of the wider EU-funded project “REGIN”; </li><li>a mapping of relevant actors and their relations between each other supporting asylum seekers and refugees operating on the substate (regional and local level); </li><li> a comparison of political discourses of regionalist parties (both with and without nationalist aspirations) about immigration. </li></ul> This research initiative advances our understanding of the multilevel governance of migration by complementing existing research on the national and the local level with research on the meso-level of government, namely regions, Bundesländer, cantons etc. oreover, some of IMMI-REG’s research initiatives explore the behaviour and approaches of specific actors (political parties; regional governments; regionally based non-governmental bodies), hence adding explorations of underlying motives, discourses and approaches to the established policy analysis in the field. Last but not least, minority regions and (ethno-)regionalist parties often serve as critical cases for this research framework, since the established centre-periphery cleavage interacts and impacts upon multilevel governance arrangements, but also upon identity-based politics which also  characterize migration politics. With its unique and explicit focus on the regional level, IMMI-REG adds a new perspective to a flourishing body of research which challenges the “methodological nationalism” of classical migration studies (Castles 2010, Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2006). This research aims at playing a leading role in the theoretical, empirical and methodological advancement of the ‘regional turn’ in migration studies.This research line bridges and complements scholarship of various strands in the field of migration studies, and thus contributes to advancing theories on nationalism, ethnic conflict, divided societies, boundary making (Wimmer 2008), and community formation through ‘the significant other’ (Triandafyllidou 1998). These theories are based on conflicts stemming from traditional diversity, national minorities and the re-drawing of borders after WWI and II, but have not yet engaged with the diversity of the 21st century, stemming from international migration.IMMI-REG’s research projects also focus on cases often neglected in the literature on minority regions and on immigration at the sub-state level (Corsica, South Tyrol, Wales, Northern Ireland), focusses on cross-border spaces (e.g. the Euregio Tyrol – South Tyrol - Trentino) and contributes to the development of comparative measurement tools and data covering the intermediate level of government within a large geographical space (e.g. regional immigrant integration indicators), going beyond Europe, e.g. in cooperation with the “REGIN” project (see below).South Tyrol features prominently in this research. First, South Tyrol has been a prominent case study from which comparisons with other minority regions have emerged. This includes the analysis of political parties’ approach to immigration and integration (in the forthcoming book on regionalist parties’ positions on immigration, stemming from my doctoral work) and the continual evaluation of the integration policies in their various dimensions and in relation to a multiplicity of actors. Through the analysis of the various dimension and actors of immigrant integration in South Tyrol, I gained important insights into the specific dynamics that take place in minority regions characterised by consociational power-sharing arrangements: societal and institutionalized boundaries act as prominent frame for any engagement with immigrant integration. This nexus between immigration and consociationalism has so far been completely neglected both in migration research as well as in studies of ethnic conflict. Thus, my contribution presents a ground-breaking exploration of the topic, which I plan to further consolidate through an in-depth comparison of the political discourse and policy making in relation to immigrant integration in consociationally organized sub-states, such as in Northern Ireland, and states, such as Belgium and Lebanon. But South Tyrol features also prominently in the comparisons of ‘ordinary’ and ‘special’ regions within Italy and in the evaluation of regional approaches towards asylum seekers, and provides insights into whether minority regions are also special in their approach to immigrant integration and the governance of asylum.Second, the continuous analysis of immigrant integration and migration governance in South Tyrol has led to the establishment of good contacts with the provincial public administration dealing with those issues, and hence ad-hoc projects or consultancies frequently arise.As such, the research has important implications for regional policy makers and it empowers them to act in a policy field often neglected due to the perceived hegemony of the state level. Ultimately, my research has also an impact on the daily life of the inhabitants of regions, provinces, cantons and Bundesländer since integration policies have a direct effect on social cohesion, on the building of trust and social capital, as well as on migrant’s successful participation in society. Those are the most important ingredients for the sustainable development of the whole territory. Highlights 2022 Catrin Wyn Edwards & Verena Wisthaler (forthcoming). "The power of symbolic sanctuary: Insights from Wales on the limitations and potential of a regional approach to sanctuary". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (accepted for publication). Verena Wisthaler (forthcoming). “Migrants, New citizens, Co-citizens and citizens by adoption? Regionalist parties’ framing of immigrants in the Basque Country, Corsica, South Tyrol, Scotland and Wales” (In Making New Citizens: Re-assessing the Citizenship-Integration Nexus, eds. Roxana Barbulescu, Sara Wallace Goodman and Luicy Pedroza. Springer: IMISCOE Research Series). Planned Activities 2023 Dissemination event co-organized by the Committee of the Regions & Vrije Universiteti Brussel: "Intergovernmental Relations on immigrant integration: multiple levels, multiple dimensions" Book propsal on Actors in Migration Governance (with Daniela Vintila) Paper on Regional Migration Governance (with Andrea Pettrachin) Publication plans 2023 Multiscalar Migration Research (with Mireille Paquet), Handbook on Migration Research, edited by Ricard Zapata-Barrero & Daniela Vintila. Ethno-regionalist parties’ construction of the collective identity in light of international immigration: ‘othering’ migrants consolidates the minority identity, Identities (under revision).

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