At this seminar, Dr. Özge Bilgili will present “Exploring the Benefits and Potential of City-to-City Partnerships in Integration Governance”, a paper co-written with Dr. Ilire Agimi. The seminar will be held from 12:30-13:30 in the conference room of UNU-Merit at Keizer Karelplein 19. A sandwich lunch will be provided.
Abstract: “In this paper, we discuss the involvement of subnational actors in migrant sending countries in the integration trajectories of migrants in destination countries. With a focus on existing city-to-city partnerships between migrant origin and destination localities, we identify the various ways in which subnational authorities can directly or indirectly support immigrant integration. Interviews with government officials, policy makers and practitioners were conducted from both origin and destination countries with a focus on the migration corridors of Turkey & Germany, Turkey & the Netherlands, and Morocco & the Netherlands. Based on desk research and interviews, we provide detailed information on how the cooperation plays out in reality, evaluate the potential benefits and assess the challenges for their involvement. Consequently, we highlight the significance of including new actors in integration governance and make propositions to develop better practices and policies that are tailored to “the diverse diversities” that make up the mosaic of destination countries.”
Speaker Biography: Dr. Özge Bilgili is an evaluation researcher at United Nations University – Merit & Maastricht Graduate School of Governance for the MIPEX 2015: “Integration Policies, Who Benefits?” Project in partnership with Migration Policy Group and Center for International Affairs Barcelona. She coordinates the evaluation research and undertakes meta-analysis research on impact evaluation studies on integration policy outcomes in 7 policy dimensions, in 18 migrant receiving countries. She also works as a migration and integration policy expert for the SAHWA “Researching Arab Mediterranean Youth: Towards a New Social Contract” Project (CIDOB) (2014) and INTERACT Project (MPI and EUI) (2014).
Boardroom
Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht