Integration Policies of European Cities in Comparative Perspective: Structural Convergence and Substantial Differentiation

This article aims to review the comparative study of integration policies of European cities. The first two sections present an analytical framework for the study of immigrants’ integration processes and the policies that intend to steer such processes. The third section outlines how local integration policies have developed in relation to national policies and EU integration policies, particularly after 2003. The fourth and main section analyses the framing and content of integration policies of European cities, looking at their diversity in the legal/political dimension, the socio-economic dimension – including the domains of work, housing, education and health – and the cultural, religious and ethnic dimension. It is concluded that there is a structural convergence, in the sense that in the complex structure of multilevel governance of migration and integration, cities do take a similar position, developing horizontal relations of cooperation and exchange. Cities that develop explicit integration policies tend to do this from a more inclusive and pragmatic framing than national and EU-policies. At the same time, there is great variation in what cities actually do: in the legal/political and in the cultural/religious dimensions, framing, intentions and measures do vary greatly; in the socio-economic dimension this variation is less when it comes to the domains of activity, but more in the intensity of policy intervention.