Sanctuary Cities

On October last year, we held an event series entitled „Sanctuary Cities in Switzerland?“ about the meaning of a sanctuary city and whether this phenomenon also exists in Switzerland. The nccr – on the move supported event series laid the grounds for an in-depth consideration of the issue of sanctuary cities and led to the creation of the subsequent blog series.

Loren Collingwood (University of California, Riverside), David Kaufmann (ETH Zürich) and Philipp Lutz (University of Geneva) got together with the idea of organizing an event series on sanctuary cities in Switzerland. Thanks to the support of the nccr – on the move, we were able to put together an interesting line-up of speakers. A sanctuary city is “a city or police department that has passed a resolution or ordinance expressly forbidding city or law enforcement officials from inquiring into immigration status and/or cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement” (O’Brien et al. 2019, 4). The phenomenon of sanctuary cities is widely known in the USA, but not so much, however, in the European region. The event series aimed to raise awareness of the issue in Switzerland and to give an overview of the research carried out on the phenomenon and related policies in support of irregular migrants. The overall positive feedback and reactions from the audience led us to set up a blog post series to further present and discuss this topic.

Irregular migrants tend to settle in dense urban areas because they facilitate access to ethnic, social or cultural networks and offer more opportunities to find work or suitable accommodation. Cities also grant a certain degree of anonymity. Irregular migrants are thus a target group for urban policies. These kinds of policies make headlines around the world under the term “sanctuary cities”. A sanctuary city tries to promote the political integration of irregular migrants and refuses to cooperate with the national police and customs authorities in checking the residence permits of its residents. Sanctuary cities have existed in the US since the 1980s, but during Donald Trump’s presidency, the issue has received renewed attention.

The concept of the city as a place of refuge for irregular migrants has also been well-received in Europe and Switzerland. European Cities formulate a multitude of measures to support and protect irregular migrants. These cities often take a stance on immigration and integration that contradicts national migration policy. In Switzerland, mainly NGOs have been active in promoting the need for more protection and better support for irregular migrants. Recently there have been interesting urban policy developments in Switzerland. The Geneva “Opération Papyrus”, for example, is likely to regularize between 2500 and 3500 migrants, who did not possess valid residence documents, but were well-integrated and have been living in the canton of Geneva for many years.

The Blog Series on Sanctuary Cities – An Outlook

The aim of the blog series – containing a total of seven blog posts – is to provide a deeper insight into the phenomenon and research on sanctuary cities in the USA and Europe, and to present the three examples of Zürich, Bern and Geneva.

The series continues with the contribution of Loren Collingwood from the University of California at Riverside. He will present his latest book “Sanctuary Cities: The Politics of Refuge”, which he wrote together with Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien. The two authors provide a concise definition of the phenomenon of sanctuary cities and an overview of the different eras of sanctuary cities in the USA. As a leading expert on the topic, Loren Collingwood will share his insights on the situation of irregular migrants in the USA and the research carried out on sanctuary cities.

This contribution is followed by a post from David Kaufmann from the ETHZ on his current research on sanctuary cities in Europe and Switzerland. He raises the questions, whether the US-phenomenon of sanctuary cities can also be found in the European region and how urban policies in support of irregular migrants are designed. David Kaufmann will also present his article “Comparing Urban Citizenship, Sanctuary Cities, Local Bureaucratic Membership, and Regularizations”, where he analyzed the variety of urban policies supporting irregular migrants.

We are excited to also include in the series the contributions of three local activists who participated in the event series last year. They will present examples of their cities in three different posts. This will allow for more insight into the dynamics that are at work, the stakeholders involved and the policy projects developed in support of the irregular migrants living in their cities:

The first example is the case of Zürich. Bea Schwager, head of the Sans-Papiers counselling center SPAZ in Zürich and board member of the “Züri City Card” Association, will share her experiences of the project of the “Züri City Card”, an ID card for all people living in Zürich.

Payal Parekh, a member of the civil society movement “Wir alle sind Bern”, which is a network that advocates for “urban citizenship”, will follow presenting the work her organization is carrying out for irregular migrants in the City of Bern.

The last example is the case of Geneva. Marianne Halle, communications and public relations officer of the “Centre de Contact Suisse-Immigrés”, presents the project “Opération Papyrus” in Geneva. The Geneva case is a success story of a policy supporting irregular migrants.

The blog series concludes with the contribution of Deniz Daser, a visiting Research Associate in Anthropology at the Rutgers University. Deniz Daser will present the special case of New Orleans, where she conducted her fieldwork. New Orleans is an example of how designating a city as a „sanctuary“ is itself a process fraught with ambiguities and inconsistencies.

So, stay tuned for this exciting blog series! Feedback and comments are more than welcome.

References:

– Collingwood, Loren, Benjamin Gonzales O’Brian (2019). Sanctuary Cities: The Politic of Refuge. Oxford University Press.

– Kaufmann, David (2019). “Comparing Urban Citizenship, Sanctuary Cities, Local Bureaucratic Membership, and Regularizations”, Public Administration Review 79(3): 443-446.

– O’Brien, Benjamin Gonzalez, Loren Collingwood, and Stephen Omar El-Khatib (2019). “The Politics of Refuge: Sanctuary Cities, Crime, and Undocumented Immigration”, Urban Affairs Review 55(1): 3–40.