The Relational Approach to Local Immigration Policy

Abstract

Local immigration policies are embedded in broader processes that encompass, cut across and link multiple localities. The relational approach is especially designed to account for such processes, combining relational arguments of previous studies with contributions from anthropology, human geography, sociology and public policy theory. Following a transactional ontology, this approach conceives the locality as an open site for processes of regional, national and transnational scope. Through these processes, the locality and its policies are formed in relation to dynamics at work on other levels and in other places. This ontology can be operationalized through the concept of policy network, theories of policy diffusion, and the concept of city scale. Methodologically, this ontology can be operationalized through extended case studies, encompassing comparisons, and incorporated comparisons.