Prof. Dr Marianne Marchand

The Role of Cities in Managing Migration: Some Experiences from the Global South

Since the 2000s one of the key concerns that emerged in migration debates is how to manage migration. The Global Commission on International Migration has further developed this concern in its 2005 report. However, interestingly, while the GCIM report recognizes that cities are sites “that accommodate large numbers of migrants, allowing them to be well placed to capitalize on the new trading, investment and business opportunities opened up by the process of globalization,” there is no mention of cities’ role in managing different migration flows. Apparently, the management of migration is still seen as an issue to be dealt with at the federal level by the central government. Yet as the literature on cities and globalization reveals, cities have an important role to play with respect to migration.

For instance, in her seminal work on global cities, Saskia Sassen not only discusses their important role as nodes in the global political economy, but also concludes that, as a result, these global cities become attraction poles for different migration flows, those of highly skilled and less skilled migrants. More recently, the role of cities in managing migration is also recognized, from a policy perspective, with the adoption of the new urban agenda during the UN Habitat III conference in 2016. This UN Habitat agenda coincides with that of certain scholars who have suggested that cities are the new (sub-national) actors in global governance. For instance, Benjamin Barber has argued that city governments are much better situated to resolve pressing problems in a practical and often non-partisan way. He even suggests that cities represent a new paradigm of global governance that is much more democratic and less top-down. In addition, the fact that more than half the world’s population lives in urban areas implies that cities have become important sites for a range of political and policy issues, of which international migration is but one.

A recent example of how cities have become involved in matters of international migration related is the creation of so-called sanctuary cities in the US as a response to the restrictive migration policies introduced by the government of president Trump. City governments have also been active in developing practical policies on issues that are important to, often undocumented, migrants, including education, health, and housing. While attention has focused in particular on how global cities in the Global North have developed local strategies to deal with migration-related issues, ranging from measures aiming at the inclusion of migrants irrespective of their legal status to repressive measures of controlling and banning migrants and their access to urban areas, less attention has been focused on (globalizing) cities in the Global South. Yet, these cities are (also) important nodes in migratory flows and their roles and policy responses need to be further analyzed.

For this project, I am interested in the umbrella topic of what types of migration related challenges affect cities in the Global South and what policy strategies have they developed to deal with such challenges. More specifically, I am looking to build on and further develop a previous research project which analyzed how three Mexican cities, Puebla, Monterrey and Tijuana, have developed policies toward different migration-related issues. This earlier research indicates that these cities are nodes in multiple migration flows: rural-urban, skilled immigration (domestic and from the Global North), transit (from Central America but also from other continents), emigration, and return migration. These cities’ experiences and policy initiatives serve to further explore cities’ roles and contributions as actors in the global governance of managing migration.

• Migration
• Gender / Feminist Theory
• Cities in the Global South
• Cities and Globalization
• Post- / Decolonial Theory
• Development

• The Role of Cities in Managing Migration: Some Experiences from the Global South
• The National and Global Reposicioning of Mexican Cities Before Transnational Problems: Energy, Environment, Migration, Citizen's Security, and Culture
• Decolonizing IR
• Migrant Women and Return Migration in Puebla, Mexico

• Global Political Economy
• Politics and Society of Canada
• Globalization and Cultural Politics
• Globalizing Cities in the Global South
• Qualitative Methods
• Gender and Global Restructuring
• Gender and International Relations

• International Studies Association (ISA)
• Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
• Asociación Mexicana de Estudios Internacionales (AMEI)

• Women Return Migrants in Puebla (Instituto Poblano de las Mujeres) 2017
• Miembro Comité Técnico, Observatorio de la Violencia Social y de Género (OVSG-Puebla), Instituto de Derechos Humanos Ignacio Ellacuría SJ, Universidad Iberoamericana – Puebla (2017-2019)
• External Evaluator, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, December 2015-March 2016.
• Women, migration and ITC (Proinnova-Conacyt 2016) Consultant, CORDAID, Project “Estado Del Arte En Las Políticas De Seguridad En El Contexto Del Actual Dinámica Política E Institucional De América Latina Con Énfasis E Colombia, Centro América y México” (2009)
• Consultant, CORDAID, Project “Estado Del Arte En Las Políticas De Seguridad En El Contexto Del Actual Dinámica Política E Institucional De América Latina Con Énfasis E Colombia, Centro América y México” (2009)
• Member, International Advisory Group, Oxfam/NOVIB Gender and Remittances Project, 2011-2012
• Participant, International Expert Meeting on International Migration and National Development: Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives in the Countries of Origin. Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 23-24 August, 2006. In preparation for the United Nations conference on Migration and Development (Fall 2006)
• National Rapporteur, Second National Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, to the Dutch Parliament , October 2002-February 2003. (At the Request of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment).
• Engendering Globalization: From Subsistence Farming to Rural Industrialization and Agribusiness, background paper prepared for the Expert Group Meeting on “The situation of rural women within the context of globalization” organized by the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 4-8 June 2001, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia:  EGM/RW/2001/BP.1
• External consultant, review of Business & Society and Social & Political Thought, undergraduate programs in the Division of Social Science, Faculty of Arts at York University in Toronto, 2007

• Eminent Scholar Award, Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section, International Studies Association (2017)
• Vice-president, International Studies Association (2007-2008)
• Inducted as member, International Register Marquis Who is Who in the World?  (2010)
• Principal Investigator “Agenda de Intervención Inmediata para la Atención a Población Migrante: Mujeres Migrantes de Retorno en Puebla” (Instituto Poblana de las Mujeres) 2017
• Principal Investigator “El Reposicionamiento Nacional y Global de Ciudades Mexicanas ante Problemas Transnacionales: Energía, Medio Ambiente, Migración, Seguridad Ciudadana y Cultura” (CONACYT-PND 247777) 2015-2018
• Principal Investigator “Unpacking the borders: North American stories of ordinary crossings and state practices”, PIERAN (Programa Interinstitucional de Estudios sobre la Région de América del Norte) 2010-2015
• Co-Coordinator “Derechos Humanos, ciudadanía e identidades de mujeres en un contexto Norteamericano”, programa de movilidad entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá. PROMESAN 2004-2008
• General Coordinator “REDESFRO (Regionalismo, Desarrollo Social y Fronteras) Summer Institute, a Euro-Latin American short-term post-graduate training program in regionalism, social development and borders” (European Commission, EuropeAid-Co-operation Office, Alfa Programme: AML/B7-311/97/0666/II-0456-FCD), 2005-2008.
• Principal Investigator “Apizaco y Huamantla. Estudio comparativo de comunidades expulsoras de migrantes: Modelo de análisis de las causas e implicaciones de los flujos migratorios para solucionar la falta del desarrollo sustentable social de la región” (Fondo Mixto CONACYT -Tlaxcala Fomix-Tlax-2003-02-12453)
• International Workshop "Regional Governance in the New Millennium", University of Amsterdam. Grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

• (Keynote) "Cities in worlding: Mexican cities’ responses to globalization," International Conference on Global(izing) cities: Governance, belonging and violence, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Niederlande.  4.-5. Juni 2018.
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) "Gender Issues in Cross-Border Migration in North America", Workshop Canada’s Past and Future in the Americas, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 27.-28. März 2017
• (Ehrenrednerin), Eminent Scholar, Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section, ISA Annual Convention, Baltimore 22.-25. Februar 2017
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) "Gender, Migration and Transnational Households: rethinking silence, voice and power" School of Global Studies, Universität Göteborg, 14. Dezember 2016
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Globalizing cities in the Global South: some Mexican Cases” School of Global Studies, Universität Göteborg, 15. Dezember 2016
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Theorizing the Global South: A Conversation with Amitav Acharya”. AMEI, Cancun, 15.-17. Oktober 2015
• (Eingeladene Teilnehmerin) Workshop “The Current State and future of IR Studies in the Global South”. AMEI, Cancun, 15.-17. Oktober 2015
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Crisis Económica, Género y Globalización en AL: Situación y Estrategias” LASA pre-conference Gender and Feminist Studies, San Juan Puerto Rico, 27.-30. Mai 2015
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Crisis Económica, Género y Globalización en AL: Situación y Estrategias” LASA pre-conference Gender and Feminist Studies, San Juan Puerto Rico, 27.-30. Mai 2015
• (Eingeladene Panelistin) “GDS Honors the Work of Third World Quarterly”, ISA Annual Meeting, Toronto, 26.-29. März 2014.
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Les mythes entourant les liens entre la migration et le développement  The myths about the linkages between migration and development”, Symposium Les Mythes et Imaginaires de la Migration Transnationale. The Myths and Imaginaries of Transnational Migration, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, 30. Mai 2014.
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) "Relaciones Internacionales y Politica Global: Perspectiva Latinoamericana", El Senado De La República A Través de la Comisión de Relaciones Exteriores de América Latina Y el Caribe y el Centro de Estudios Internacionales "Gilberto Bosques", en Coordinación con La Universidad Iberoamericana y la Fundación Friedrich Ebert, Mexico  21.-22. Februar 2013
• (Eingeladene Rednerin) “Debates Contemporáneos y Problemas Teóricos Metodológicos en el Estudio de las Relaciones Internacionales, Teoría Feminista Poscolonial y/en las RI” Puebla: BUAP,  24. Mai 2013