local government

This article describes the ascension of cities as key actors in global cooperation, and their related impact in shaping the global governance of migration. Over the last decade, cities have begun to mobilize strategically through greater trans-networking efforts in order to secure their representation in global decision-making circles; to inform policies such that these better reflect local realities; and to advocate for direct access to resources to implement their goals.  One important outcome of these efforts is mayors’ successful advocacy in 2018 for a clause on ‘non-discriminatory access’ to public health services within the UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM).  Mayors’ insistence on non-discriminatory treatment of all city residents was right and prescient in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and is further evidence of the critical need to elevate local leadership within national and global policy-making and governance.

Immigration and its governance, for many countries across the globe emigration is a far more significant phenomenon. The emigration of significant shares of population has affected these and other origin countries in myriad ways, by, for instance, impacting their (potential for) economic growth, their labour supply and wage levels, contributing to demographic changes such as ageing and population decline, and generating significant political and institutional effects