Whole-COMM
Whole-COMM is a new Horizon 2020 project which aims to study integration policies targeting post-2014 migrants in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas.
Immigrant integration is an increasingly salient issue in contemporary Europe and beyond. While we know a lot about integration policies and processes in big cities thanks to growing scholarship in political science and sociology on local integration policymaking, during the so-called 2015 European ‘refugee crisis’ European governments implemented national redistribution plans that dispersed thousands of asylum seekers and refugees to small and medium-sized towns and rural areas. Six years later it is time to explore the integration policies developed and implemented in these localities since 2015, their outcomes, but also the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these dynamics.
Aware of the many critiques raised towards the very concept of integration we have nevertheless decided to keep using this label to connect with existing scholarly and policy debates. However, our working paper redefines the concept of integration, moving beyond the problematic ‘two-way’ definition but also the so-called whole-of-society approach, which largely overlooks the local level. We therefore propose to redefine integration as a community-making process with three key characteristics. First, it is a ‘situated process’ that takes place in local contexts characterised by different local economies and labour markets, demographic trends and previous experiences with socio-cultural diversity. Second, it is brought about by the interaction of multiple actors, with multiple (and multilevel) relations, networks, interests and resources. Third, its outcomes are open-ended, and do not necessarily correspond to increased social cohesion or ‘mutual adjustment’ between migrants and the local community. We specifically aim to assess these ‘(dis)integration’ outcomes by empirically assessing three key dimensions of local communities’ quality of social life: reciprocal attitudes between different groups within local communities; social interactions between such groups; and migrants’ modes of interaction with the local community’s institutions, support organizations and markets.
© Whole-COMM
The project asks two key questions. First, how do the various actors whose actions affect local communities decide, implement and/or act upon immigrant integration policies in different types of small and medium-sized towns and rural areas? Second, how – i.e. through which causal mechanisms and processes – do local policies and other outputs of integration governance systems contribute to producing different outcomes in terms of local communities’ ‘quality of social life’, across different types of small and medium-sized towns and rural areas?
To explore our research questions, we develop a complex comparative research design, which combines a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, covering 49 localities across 10 different countries. We will explore our first research question by relying on semi-structured interviews, analyses of policy documents and a structured survey to explore actors’ relations within the multilevel governance system. To explore our second research question – and building on the findings generated during the first part of the research – we will apply participant observation, focus groups, quasi-experiments to assess the impact of policies and a survey to assess public attitudes.
Our outputs and activities can be found on Whole-COMM’s website, newsletter and social network (twitter, facebook and Instagram).
By the Whole-COMM Coordination Team
The views and opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the TRAFIG Consortium or the European Commission (EC). TRAFIG is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.