Lampedusa in Hamburg unites groups from the "Right to the City" network, refugees, trade union activists, student organisations around call, "Right to the City - Never mind the papers!",Germany 2015. Flickr/Rasande Tyskar. Some rights reserved.A new municipal protagonism appears to be emerging in the so-called refugee ‘crisis’. City governments are supporting one another in welcoming refugees, contesting state blockages in parliaments and making agreements between cities. In April 2016, ten European cities jointly denounced the inaction of states in the welcoming of refugees in the European Commission. Demanding that cities be seen as key political actors of welcoming, and appealing for direct EU funding to cities, mayors such as Ada Colau (Barcelona) are exploring ways of circumventing the national deadlock in the current crisis.
What role can and do states, the EU and cities play in producing, managing and overcoming this crisis? How might networks of ‘cities of refuge’ develop sustainable practices of social composition beyond the politics of identity? The role of solidarity movements in cities is key: these movements have opened the space for demands and imaginaries of a different Europe open to solidarity. We ask how municipalities and locals can help break the deadlock and negative spiral of EU and national refugee policy, and argue that the time is ripe for grassroots and government practices to be articulated critically, starting from the city.
A new horizon for translocal solidarity?
Looking at the media, one can easily get the impression that there is an unchallenged European-wide consensus about shutting the borders. But millions of Europeans have been actively involved in refugee solidarity work - in Germany alone the estimated number is 11 million. The far right may indeed be growing, but the media and political elites are ignoring the existence of a popular alternative to the current politics of closure. The media and political elites are ignoring the existence of a popular alternative to the current politics of closure.
