This episode features a conversation recorded live at the IMISCOE annual conference that was hosted in Paris-Auberville in early July.
You can already submit proposals for the IMISCOE’s Spring Conference in Liège next March, as well as the next annual conference – which will take place in Girona. Check below for more information!
In this episode, you’ll hear Asya Pisarevskaya speak with Andrea Pettrachin and Karolina Łukasiewicz about how cities (and specifically city governments) across Europe respond to migration.
Andrea talks mostly from the research on small and medium-sized towns and rural areas in Europe, and Karoline brings her experience from cities in Central and Eastern Europe.
This broad view shows how cities vary greatly when it comes to their approach to migration – besides some being more “progressive”, and others being “conservative”, some cities take proactive steps on their own, going above and beyond (or sometimes contrary to) what national governments dictate. While others refuse to implement measures they are legally required do, all together.
Our guests also touch on the differences between the discourse that cities use about migration (i.e. being a very “open” vs. being a more hostile), and how that is not always aligned with what happens in practice.
For me, it was also interesting to hear how cities have shifted from a more practical approach to migration to a more political one, for better or worse.
Finally, Karoline and Andrea also share recommended actions that cities can take if they want to have inclusive and effective responses to migration.
Andrea Pettrachin is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Padua. He worked on the Horizon 2020 project “WHOLE-COMM: Exploring the Integration of Post-2014 Migrants in Small and Medium-Sized Towns and Rural Areas from a Whole of Community Perspective”
Karolina Łukasiewicz is an Assistant Professor at the Centre of Migration Research (CMR), which is an interdisciplinary inter-faculty research unit of the University of Warsaw. She worked on the projects: “LOCMIG” - Local welfare system response to migrant poverty. Between innovations and inequality and “MigIntegrEast” - Migrant integration governance in CEE cities post 2015
I hope you enjoy…!
Info on IMISCOE’s Spring Conference in Liège, and the next annual conference:
IMISCOE Spring Conference in Liège, Belgium (Submission deadline: September 5, 2025):
https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/2393-2026-imiscoe-spring-conference
IMISCOE Annual Conference in Girona, Spain/Online (Submission deadline: September 25, 2025)
https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/2418-23rd-imiscoe-annual-conference-2026
For more information on Karoline's and Andrea's work, see below;
From Karoline:
LOCMIG Project: https://www.migracje.uw.edu.pl/projects/local-welfare-system-response-to-migrant-poverty-between-innovations-and-inequality/
MigIntegrEast: https://www.migracje.uw.edu.pl/projects/9569/
1. Łukasiewicz K., Pachocka M. Nowosielski M. Eds. (forthcoming) Migration Governance In Central And Eastern European Cities Post-2015, IMISCOE Springer book Series.
2. Łukasiewicz, Karolina, Ewa Cichocka, Kamil Matuszczyk, 2024, A missed opportunity: Local welfare systems' responses to marginalized migration in the COVID-19 context, Cities. The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.104880
3. Łukasiewicz, Karolina, Tanzilya Oren, Saumya Tripathi. 2021. Local welfare system response to refugees: between innovations, efficiency, and creating unequal opportunities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1905506.
Karoline would like to thank Marta Pachocka, Michał Nowosielski, Ewa Cichocka, and Kamil Matuszczyk - her colleagues from the Laboratory of Urban and Regional Migration Policies, with whom she worked on migration governance in cities at the Centre of Migration Research.
Her research on migration governance in cities was funded by:
1. The National Science Center, under grant agreement UMO-2019/35/D/HS5/01919, project title: "Local welfare system response to migrant poverty. Between innovations and inequality".
2. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 896115, project title: Migrant integration governance in CEE cities post 2015 – MigIntegrEast
From Andrea:
WHOLE COMM Project: https://whole-comm.eu/
1. Pettrachin, Andrea (2024). ‘The Multi-Layered Governance of Migration in Italy. Policy Actors, Networks, and the Shaping of the Refugee 'Crisis’’. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN: 978-3-031-57831
2. Caponio, Tiziana and Andrea Pettrachin (2023). ‘Neither Multilevel Governance Nor Battleground. Understanding the Politics of Immigrant Integration Governance in Small European Localities’. Governance, 1-24, doi: 10.1111/gove.12833. ISSN: 1468-0491
3. Pettrachin, Andrea (2023). ‘The Politics of Multi-Level Migration Policymaking: A Network-centred Perspective’. Policy Studies, 45 (1): 89-112, doi: 10.1080/01442872.2023.2187043. ISSN: 0144-2872
4. Pettrachin, Andrea and Leila Hadj Abdou (2024). ‘Beyond Evidence-Based Policymaking? Exploring Knowledge Formation and Source Effects in US Migration Policymaking’. Policy Sciences 57: 3-28, doi: 10.1007/s11077-024-09523-y