Chapter 5 Urban partnerships to manage mobility
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migrant associations and bring migrant representatives into city councils. In several European cities, the active participation of migrants is generally fostered through the creation of participatory bodies such as the “Socially Integrative City” (Soziale Stadt) in Berlin, “Neighbourhood Councils” (Conseils de quartier) in Lille, and the “Dublin City Community Forum” in Dublin, or through specific projects such as “Europe for citizens 2007-2013” from which Turin was able to benefit (Ernst & Young Global Limited, 2014). Neighbourhood and community councils are part of the new systems of participation to enable local authorities to consolidate civil engagement, along with e-democracy and participatory budgeting. In addition, migrants should be encouraged to exercise their right to vote in municipal elections. Within the European Union, EU-mobile citizens could vote in local elections. However, this right is rarely exercised, mainly due to lack of information (ibid.). In Europe, the Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia has taken the lead on promoting full citizenship and voting rights for immigrants. The municipality has also been recognized by the Council of Europe (CoE) for its Programme 2012–201411 on intercultural dialogue and implementation of CoE recommendations. One pragmatic approach to facilitating active urban citizenship is to grant the rights of urban citizenship to undocumented and unauthorized migrants. As the latter lack legal documentation, providing municipal identification to all inhabitants of a city regardless of migration status allows them to access public services in the city. In the United States, New York City issues municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants to enable them to open bank accounts, sign apartment leases, receive library cards and gain access to other services. Dublin permits all residents, including non-citizens, to vote in local elections (Cities of Migration, 2012). Today, there are good reasons for reconnecting “citizenship” with “cities”, especially when taking a bottom-up approach to citizenship. The demographic complexity of cities and their attractiveness to migrants establishes the conditions and the need for citizenship as the process of political engagement between diverse groups and individuals. Cities today are more diverse than ever which highlights the need for forms of citizenship that are sensitive to difference while promoting engagement (Painter, 2005). There are growing expectations that migrants should actively contribute to their own socioeconomic inclusion in cities in high-income countries. Recent findings from the Divercities project on hyper-diversified European cities, including Antwerp, Athens, Budapest, Leipzig, Tallinn, Warsaw and Zurich, found that many cities increasingly emphasize the social mobility of citizens, and develop policies to guarantee the equal opportunities, but not outcomes, for individuals. These policies, however, have a bias towards more “creative” and “entrepreneurial” citizens and would need fine tuning so as not to adversely impact disadvantaged groups (Van Kempen, 2014). From the migrants’ perspective, there is evidence that migrants readily identify with host cities. In a recent study, immigrants and members of minorities in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States were found to identify more 11 See the Reggio Emilia Programme 2012–2014 for intercultural dialogue and implementation of the Council of Europe recommendations, available at www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/culture/cities/Reggio%20 intercultural%20strategy.pdf