Beyond Migrant Integration Policies: Rethinking the Urban Governance of Migration-Related Diversity

Bringing together literature from public administration and migration studies, this article makes the case for a reconceptualisation of urban governance of migration-related diversity. It shows that Europe is experiencing a transformation towards structurally high levels of mobility (with the recent refugee situation as only the most recent manifestation), contributing to a further increase in the complexity of diversity, i.e., superdiversity. The local level in particular seems to be facing these challenges most concretely. The article therefore calls for a local turn, not only in policies themselves, but also in the study of migration and diversity. Mainstreaming is identified in this article as a promising governance strategy for cities to devote greater structural attention to the issues of diversity and migration. It reflects the generalisation of migration as a phenomenon that influences all policies and institutions in a city, and calls for a generic rather than a specific approach.