Towards a second-generation research agenda on local integration policies?

This chapter examines the evolution of research on local immigrant integration policies in Europe in the last two decades. In the early 2000s, scholars started to unravel the local dimension of migrant integration policymaking. This ‘first-generation’ scholarship faced criticism for its narrow theoretical scope, urban bias, lack of cross-locality analyses, and neglect of policy outcomes. Recent developments – spurred by the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ and broader transformations in migration politics and governance – have shifted the research focus to small localities, diverse actors (including non-governmental organisations), multilevel governance, and dynamics of local politicisation of migration policymaking. Despite these advancements, significant gaps remain, particularly in methodological innovation and understanding policy impacts on integration outcomes. Through a systematic review of the IMISCOE Migration Research Hub database, the chapter identifies four pillars of this emerging ‘second-generation’ scholarship on local migrant integration policy and outlines future research directions to address theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges.