The informal support to migrants: thinking the interstices of multi-level governance
In studying local policies for migrants, a wealth of research has documented the vertical interactions between different tiers of governments and the horizontal collaboration between public authorities and civil society organisations. Despite its large scope, this approach leaves in the dark the mobilisation of actors who, for different reasons, work outside any official collaborative framework with public institutions. From groups of individuals who spontaneously help or accommodate migrants to radical activists who refuse to be involved with any policy actor, this grey zone of pro-migrant mobilisation is filled with an array of heterogeneous actors.

Drawing on the cases of Paris and Barcelona, this paper examines the co-evolution between the institutional field of collaborators created by local policies and the canvas of actors operating in the interstices of public inaction. Complementing the perspective on multilevel governance, this paper proposes an approach to interstitial governance in which lower-tier actors take charge of what is left unaddressed by upper institutional levels.

Register in advance for this meeting: zoom.us/meeting/register/dlv-hLpTQH2P8pfTx8YeGA
Date: 24 June 2025, 14:00
Venue: Online only
Speakers: Thomas Lacroix (Maison Française d’Oxford), Louise Hombert (Université de Neuchâtel)
Organising department: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)
Organiser: Myriam Cherti (COMPAS, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: info@compas.ox.ac.uk
Host: Myriam Cherti (COMPAS, University of Oxford)
Part of: C-MISE Research Exchange Webinars
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/event/c-mise-research-exchange-webinars
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Nathan Grassi