Mayors as Partners? Municipal Actors in Migration Governance

• In Event: Urban Politics in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

As international aid providers increasingly look towards the “local” as a space of responding to large-scale displacement and refugee crises, mayors and local leaders become critical interlocutors, and mediators in international humanitarian and development initiatives. In many cases, this interaction places local elites in an unprecedented role, where they play gate-keeping and mediating roles in the process of international aid distribution. International conferences and fora bringing together mayors, international development actors, UNHCR, have become increasingly popular, advancing the notion that mayors, unlike national actors, can be effective “partners” in addressing the needs of migrants and refugees worldwide. This paper aims to critically analyze this discourse, and to understand the myriad ‘roles’ that mayors and municipal authorities play in migration governance, including as gatekeepers and boundary-making actors. In so doing, I argue that the existing discourse aims to de-politicize the role of mayors, position them as ‘outside the state,’ and to limit critiques of international and NGO cooperation with municipal actors. This paper draws on analysis of conference documents and briefings, government and NGO reports, and over 13 months of fieldwork in Lebanon focused on subnational migration governance. 

Author

• Lama Mourad, Carleton University