EuroMedMig, the EuroMed Research Network on Migration, coordinated by The Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration at the University Pompeu Fabra (GRITIM-UPF) is organizing, together with the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Municipality of Barcelona, a Mediterranean symposium, titled “Migration governance capacities for Mediterranean cities: a strategic urban agenda for the next decade”, which will take place on the 23rd of October at the University Pompeu Fabra.

The aim of this Symposium is to facilitate dialogue between key actors and researchers with the objective of developing a strategic urban agenda for migration for the next decade. The intention is to enhance the capacities and role of Mediterranean cities in terms of migration governance and to decentralise the governance of Mediterranean migration and integrate an urban agenda into current national debates, to create a more sustainable structure of a Mediterranean city network on migratory issues, and to work together on an index that makes it possible to compare the development of the governance capacity of cities in migratory issues, convinced that this is one of the topics of common interest throughout the Mediterranean. 

The symposium will be shaped by different thematic roundtables, which will address a wide range of topics and key challenges local authorities face in dealing with migration. These include policy innovation and urban resilience as a means to overcome governance constraints, the key role of certain organisations supporting cities in migration governance, the potential of city-networks and city diplomacy to leverage city leadership, and the challenges and opportunities linked to data generation and interpretation at the local level to support evidence-based policies.

For this one-day event, we will count on the participation of high-profile representatives from the municipalities of Barcelona, Marseille, Istanbul, Tangier, Athens, Tirana and Gaziantep, drawing municipal cooperation and allowing for peer dialogues. Additionally, representatives from leading international organizations and non-State actors from all rims of the Mediterranean will also be present, including UN-Habitat, the Mixed Migration Center (MMC), Africapolis-OECD, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, Fondation Orient-Occident, the Mayors’ Mechanism, Medicities, the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and Red de Ciudades Inteligentes (RECI).

Furthermore, the presence of leading migration scholars from the EuroMedMig network will be key in enhancing academia and policy dialogues, which are considered key in informing policies, and in fostering enriching and challenging discussions throughout all of the Symposium’s roundtables.

The anticipated results will provide guidance on the next steps of this strategic network constitution and will inform the next actions of the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed between GRITIM-UPF and the IEMed. This closed event will take place at the Ciutadella Campus of the UPF, and is a direct outcome of a previous Symposium that took place two years ago at the Palau Pedralbes.

The full programme of the Symposium can be accessed here.