Migrants and Refugees in the Mediterranean Cities: Reception, Regulation and Actors – Tunisia a Case Study

Abstract

Based on the case study of Tunisian cities, this chapter focuses on how these cities have been involved in a variety of initiatives, actions and programs in order to provide assistance and seek to integrate foreign migrants on their territories. The aim is to describe their main patterns of reception and to compare them, when fruitful. The targeted cities are those of the border region with Libya and Sfax and Sousse, with different migratory contexts from one city to another. Two major turning points have been investigated: (1) the migration waves of 2011 which coincided with the “Arab uprisings”, when the cities of South-East Tunisia were in the forefront in welcoming and assisting migrant workers and Libyan families fleeing the war and (2) The Covid-19 global health crisis between 2020–2021, during which many Tunisian cities organized campaigns in aid of migrants in precarious conditions. After having launched, from 2018 to 2021, a process of decentralization and transfer of competences and means from the Centre to the local authorities, the political change of 2021 (presidential coup) has stopped the process by abolishing the Ministry of Local Affairs and attaching the municipalities to the Ministry of the Interior. Many municipal officials expressedfears that Central authorities will return to dominate local communities.