Governing difference in the city: urban imaginaries and the policy practice of migrant incorporation

Abstract

Governance in cities: Urban imagination and integration of immigration policy. Territory, Politics, Governance. This article examines how urban policy actors organize policy practice according to their understanding of the diverse city. In contrast to the national level, cities are sometimes considered to have a pragmatic approach to governing (ethnic) diversity. Yet urban policies also reflect local norms and identities. As such, the city functions as a local discursive condition for and product of understandings of the social world, including processes of differentiation and boundary-drawing. A comparison of policies dealing with migrant incorporation in Amsterdam and The Hague–two highly diverse cities in The Netherlands–shows a discrepancy may exist between overarching discourses and policy practices. While municipal policy discourses suggest a coherent programme, policy practices are rather fragmented. Even though policy actors explain this divergence (also) in terms of pragmatism, they use distinct, city-specific logics to identify what is ‘pragmatic’ and arrive at different outcomes. ‘Urban imaginaries’ or tacitly shared imaginations about the place of migrants in the urban community serve to provide orientation in this regard.