Approaches for analyzing the local governance of forced migration

Weihmayer, Melissa (2024) Approaches for analyzing the local governance of forced migration. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the intersections between local governance and forced migration, specifically how local governments understand and develop their responses to forced migration. I intervene in debates within (forced) migration studies that problematize the dominance of central governments in decision-making, extending this to internal displacement scholarship. I do this by analyzing local government decision-making structures, processes, practices and ideas that shape responses using three empirical cases: emergent local responses to internal displacement in eastern Ukraine in the under-researched period from 2014 until 2022, policies regulating the administration of emergency humanitarian assistance for victims of Colombia’s internal armed conflict, and processes through which local governments improve their asylum responses in London, United Kingdom since 2020. Each case develops concepts that elucidate key mechanisms through which local governments take on (more) responsibility for the governance of forced migration. These concepts are local governance and the building of a local social contract, multilevel governance systems, and capacity-building processes. The project overall contributes novel ideas to forced migration literature by employing a ‘governance lens’, drawing from political geography, public administration, and urban governance fields. This lens analyzes how dilemmas within forced migration policymaking processes affect governance and vice versa. I also place responses to forced migration within their broader governance context to relate policy areas affecting the wider population with those affecting forced migrants specifically. I argue that changes in governance and responses to forced migration productively inform each other. I demonstrate that strengthening ties between displaced populations and their local state requires a rebalancing of central-local power relations. As local government actors undertake political work in their responses to forced migration, they also interrogate their role in broader state-society relations, demonstrating potential for transformational change. This builds foundations for more bottom-up responses to forced migration.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Melissa Weihmayer
Library of Congress subject classification:	J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Sets:	Departments > Geography and Environment
Supervisor:	Holman, Nancy and Sanyal, Romola
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4784

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