Local policies toward migrants as an expression of Host-Stranger relations: a proposed typology

This article proposes an analytical framework for comparing and understanding local policy reactions to the settlement of labour migrants, based on the concept of Host-Stranger relations. Labour migrants represent the Stranger in our midst, and local migrant policies are part of a process in which the local authority comes to grips with the presence of these Strangers. Increasingly, European cities are developing their own ways of dealing with the permanent presence of a significant migrant population, often diverging from national policies. Municipal policy reactions range from establishment of migrant advisory councils to dispersal of ethnic enclaves. As 'new immigration' cities try out their own policies, we may speak of a European-wide phenomenon with cities in different stages of migrant policy development. Yet we lack a theoretical framework enabling comparison of migrant policies at the local level, across different cities and policy domains. The typology proposed here posits four types, or phases, of municipal attitudes/assumptions regarding the migrants and their Otherness, expressed in specific policies toward the migrant population. The aim of the typology is to highlight this often hidden dimension of policy-making at the local level. Examples from a literature survey of 25 cities illustrate uses of the proposed typology.