WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2015 Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility
175
Text box 30
Participatory budgeting and migrant inclusion in Porto Alegre, Brazil9 Porto Alegre, in the southern part of Brazil, is a good example of a city seeking social inclusion through participation of various groups, including internal migrants. By participating in local elections and other fora, they are able to express their needs and defend their basic rights and also participate in building city institutions. Within seven years of the establishment of the city’s municipal assembly in 1990, the percentage of locals with access to sewers doubled from 46 per cent to 95 per cent. The rate of road building, particularly in the favelas (slums), rose fivefold. Tax evasion fell, as people saw what their money was being spent on. Moreover, the process gave a voice to the urban poor. Citizens from the poorest 12 per cent accounted – in 1995 – for a third of the citywide assembly participants. Today, 15,000 locals take part in the “orçamento participativo” (participatory budgeting) each year – and one in ten citizens have taken part at some point or other.
5.3.2. Pragmatic initiatives on urban citizenship Positive efforts are being made among city policymakers to promote social cohesion. There are good examples of institutional structures being formed with the commitment of federal and local level authorities in a number of cities in Europe (for instance, Berlin, Athens, Bilbao and Dublin) and in Asia (Fuzhou in the Fujian Province of China, Singapore and a network of cities in Japan). Cities like Berlin, Dublin and Lille are also forging partnerships with migrant associations to promote citizenship and political participation among migrant groups. Local governments adopt remarkably similar practices to reduce tensions and increase cohesion among diverse resident groups (Fincher et al., 2014). Urban inclusion policies are often more pragmatic than migration governance at the national level. Instead of considering multi-ethnic societies as a threat, urban policymakers tend to promote the positive aspects of difference for competitiveness and social cohesion. Many cities today are using their own initiative on migration and urban governance in order, for example, to fill gaps in central governance and policies on migration. In Argentina, the province of Buenos Aires approved a series of laws guaranteeing every child the right to schooling and all people access to public services, regardless of their legal status. This law was passed years ahead of the national Immigration Law of 2004 but needed the national law to facilitate implementation.10 One way of institutionalizing inclusive urban citizenship is to encourage the political participation of migrants at the local level. Cities may thus forge partnerships with Based on P. Kingsley, Participatory democracy in Porto Alegre. The Guardian, 10 September 2012. Available from www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/10/participatory-democracy-in-porto-alegre [Accessed on 16 December 2014]. 10 In 2004, Argentina's Law 25.871 (Ley de Migraciones de Argentina) uniquely recognized the right to migrate as a human right, favoured the integration of immigrants into society and gave them equal access to social services, public goods, health, justice, education, justice, work and social security across the whole country.
9