Introduction

Abstract

Major places of destination and key stages on migration routes, cities are today at the crossroads of migration dynamics, processes of incorporation at different scales, and politics toward non-citizen residents. Faced with the arrival of more diverse populations in terms of socio-economic background and legal status, who are departing from varying political contexts of expulsion in countries of origin, cities are compelled to adapt to the growing complexity of integrating foreign populations in the twenty-first century. As a result, cities all over the Americas have become involved in the governance of migrations in ways that were not previously as explicit. This book thus aims to establish a dialogue around the various policies of sanctuary and other formal or informal practices of migrant protection that have emerged or been strengthened in cities in the Americas in the last decade. By confronting accounts of local responses to migration in both North and South, the book attempts to identify elements of convergence and divergence among experiences of urban governance of migration in cities throughout the Americas.