Original Language
English
Number of Pages
92
Reference Number
ENG0419
Year of Publication
2015

White Paper: Mainstreaming Migration into Local Development Planning and Beyond

The Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) have joined forces and expertise to carry out a study titled “Mainstreaming Migration into Local Development Planning and Beyond,” which aims to provide a thorough analysis of what has been done thus far in mainstreaming migration at the local level, and allows for a stocktaking of functioning practices to paint a global picture of working processes, lessons learned and policy recommendations for future mainstreaming exercises.

The importance of local authorities in developing and implementing migration and development policies and initiatives, as well as driving integration processes, is increasingly recognized at the global level. At the same time, the process of integrating migration within policy design and planning – also known as the “mainstreaming” process – is increasingly perceived as key to addressing migration-related issues, as well as in building on all the opportunities associated with it. This process is based on the recognition of the wide range of policy areas that affect and are affected by migration, and on the subsequent building of coherence among concerned policies and actors. Although mainstreaming processes are now mainly addressed at the national level, its translation and application at the local level is increasingly considered a crucial aspect in maximizing the potential of migration for development. Indeed, several territories around the globe have initiated such coherence-building processes in the recent years, and therefore their experiences constitute a precious knowledge-base of good practices and lessons learned.

It is within this context that the White Paper analyses and compares different existing mainstreaming initiatives, synthetizing the main features, identifying good practices and key lessons and providing a set of policy recommendations for a wide variety of stakeholders, including local and regional authorities. Moreover, the White Paper consolidates the main migration mainstreaming processes at the local level into a visual aid that serves as a basis for further mainstreaming exercises.

  • Foreword
  • List of acronyms
  • Part 1: Introduction
  • Part 2: Results of the analysis: A systematic approach to local mainstreaming processes
  • Part 3: Policy recommendations
  • Part 4: Case studies of local initiatives
  • Bibliography