Conclusion

Abstract

The chapters in this volume all address the challenges posed by the presence of migrant populations in urban environments, and the way local policy actors answer the various questions that this presence raises. Despite a diversity of situations, the same interrogations are at stake from Canada to Chile: how can local decision-makers act on what has become a major social and political issue throughout the Americas, in areas as diverse as security, access to health, education and housing services, urban economic development, and the peaceful coexistence of increasingly diverse ethnic and national-origin groups? What place in the city can be given to these populations long term, in terms of real participation in urban life, from an economic, socio-cultural, or political perspective? As was highlighted in the introduction to this volume, cities are at the forefront of the arrival and settlement of foreign populations. In this concluding section, we consider some of the main aspects that can be highlighted upon juxtaposition of the case studies developed in the volume. Although the book is not comparative in nature, the aim of this section is to point out patterns of commonalities and distinctions beyond situated contexts, and to initiate a reflection on the dialectical and evolving relationships between migration, the city, and public action. Central to the book has been the need to locate reception policies in their dual environments, that of migration dynamics, on the one hand, and of the structural conditions that allow for urban action, on the other. These two parameters undergird the meaning and scope of hospitality measures, and thus the framework in which the questions of reception are posed.