Gebhardt, Dirk

Dirk Gebhardt is a trained urban geographer (PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin, 2009) and joined GRITIM in 2013 for a Marie-Curie Intra-European fellowship comparing local citizenship policies towards migrants. He teaches migration governance as an associate lecturer at GRITIM-UPF. His academic work is focused on comparative migrant integration and citizenship policies, in particular at local level and the role of city networks.

Some key publications over the last decade include:

2024 Gebhardt, D. (2024). Ambitions municipalistes et engagement à long terme. Barcelone et le réseau Eurocities. In: Flamant, A., Fourot, A.C. and Healy, A., 2024. Villes, réseaux de villes et gouvernance des migrations, 188-205.
2021 ‘We as leaders of major European cities’–how Eurocities works to influence EU migration and integration policies. Local Government Studies, pp.1-19 (w. Güntner, S.)
2020 Barcelona: municipalist policy entrepreneurship in a centralist refugee reception system. CMS 8, 15 (2020) (w. Garcés-Mascareñas, B.)
2018 The participation of EU citizens and third-country nationals in local elections in Europe. Report for the “My City My Vote” project, City of Barcelona.
2017 Barcelona: Regulating the tourism growth-machine? (German original title: Barcelona: Die Drosselung des Wachstumsmotors Tourismus?) In: Geographische Zeitschrift, 105(3-4), 225-248.
2016 Re-thinking urban citizenship for immigrants from a policy perspective: the case of Barcelona, In: Citizenship Studies, 20, 6-7, 846-866
2016 The difference that Being a Minority Territory Makes – A Comparison of the Regulation of Immigrant Citizenship in Catalonia, Andalusia, and Madrid. In: European Yearbook of Minority Studies, 13/2014, 101-129. 
2015 When the state takes over: civic integration programmes and the role of cities in immigrant integration. In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42, 5, 742-758.
2014 Building Inclusive Cities: Challenges in the Multilevel Governance of Immigrant Integration in Europe. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. 

In addition to his academic work, Dirk is designing and facilitating mutual learning on integration policies with European cities. Dirk is the Lead Expert accompanying the URBACT network WELDI on applying Human Rights standards in migrant reception and integration policies (2023-25). He coordinated the learning strand in Eurocities’  project UNITES in which 8 European cities applied co-design with migrants in designing integration strategies (2022-24, European Asylum and Migration Fund) and also organised learning on local employment policies for cities in the Eurocities projects CONNECTION (2020-23) and CONSOLIDATE (2024-26). Beyond the field of migration Dirk also accompanies local policy innovation and learning as an expert in the European Urban Initiative EUI.

Dirk also has an extensive track record in teaching research methods; migration governance (UPF Barcelona, Master of Immigration, 2017-); Immigration in Spain (USC Los Angeles, Summer Programme, Valencia, 2017 & 2018), Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (2018 & 2019) and on a variety of topics on Urban Social and Population Geography (Humboldt-University Berlin, between 2001 and 2008).