While in 2015 governments were discussing refugee quotas and border control measures, many European cities were responding to the arrival or transit of thousands of asylum seekers. This led cities to organise parallel accommodation programmes and build international alliances city to city. To what extent are local responses more inclusive? How does the fitting between the local, the national and the EU level work? Does cities’ central position in terms of reception and social cohesion demand a reconfiguration of city-state relations in the field of immigration and asylum policies?

Conference by:

Maura Gambarana, Chief of Migration Office, Municipality of Milano 

Faika El-Nagashi, Council woman, Municipality of Vienna

Leftiris Papagiannakis, First Deputy Mayor and Head of Refugee and Immigration Affairs, Municipality of Athens

Ramon Sanahuja, Director of Migrants Attention and Hosting, Municipality of Barcelona

Moderated by:

Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas, Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB

>> The conference will be streamed here

First conference of the series ‘Refugees: Dialogues among the main actors involved’, which is organised in collaboration with Palau Macaya and aims to open a space for dialogue and reflection between the different actors involved in the management of the so-called “refugee crisis” in the European Union.

The so-called “refugee crisis” has led to the justification and deepening of a series of trends initiated in the early 2000s: externalisation of border control, securitization of immigration policies and increasingly restrictive asylum policies. 2015 also saw a proliferation of the main actors involved. Local and regional administrations but also social and civil society organizations have become key players, not only in the implementation of state policies but also in political debates and decision-making processes. 

It is in this context that we organise this series of conferences. The project aims to create a space for dialogue and reflection between the different actors involved in the management of the so-called “refugee crisis” in the European Union. By the exchange of experiences, its final objective is twofold: 1) to identify the main problems as well as alternatives for a more efficient and humane management, and 2) to promote cooperation between the different actors involved, both from a multilevel governance perspective (supranational, national, regional and local) and between public administrations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society.