The overall research project examines how cities deal with the social and economic incorporation of forced migrants. The research focuses on the challenges and the opportunities that local governments face as they mediate between national migration control policies and the influx of asylum seekers in precarious socio-legal situations.
In addition to a qualitative extensive case study analysis of 2 central cities (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem), this year, we expanded the research to Haifa as a third central city in Israel to elicit variation of how different localities exhibiting characteristic differences in dealing with “aliens” or unclassifiable others within the nation-state (see previous report).
We also treat Haifa as a case study by itself due to the relatively few numbers of refugees residing there and the only currently evolving situation on the ground. Following Çağlar and Glick Schiller (2015), we seek to contribute to the literature seeking a “multiscalar perspective” on relationships between migration and localities by researching cities that are not central gateways to migration and yet important for grasping new dynamics of refugees dispersal, such as in Haifa.