Civic Legacies and the Development of Urban Integration Policy in France: Migrant Roma Housing Policy.

In 2014, two French cities that host thousands of migrant Roma—Toulouse and Lille—had similar housing policies for migrant Roma. However, by 2015 Toulouse housing policy shifted dramatically and pre-empted the national-level model for long-term housing policy for migrant Roma. Lille did not pivot toward long-term housing for migrant Roma until a national level policy change in 2017. What explains this divergence? Why did Toulouse emerge as a leader and Lille a follower regarding housing policy for EU migrant Roma? This dissertation finds evidence that civic legacies—networks (NGOs), ideas (policy frames), and actors (policy entrepreneurs)—developed during previous integration efforts shape housing policy. Using Toulouse and Lille as case studies, this research asks: how do civic legacies influence housing policy for migrant Roma? The evidence demonstrates that policy entrepreneurs engage with the civic legacy of a city and use it to introduce housing policy. Toulouse’s civic legacy was developed in the 1990s and activated in 2015 by a policy entrepreneur who advocated for long-term housing. In contrast, Lille lacked the civic legacy development in the 1990s to pivot entirely toward long-term housing in 2015. Instead, even after Lille introduced long-term housing options in 2017, Lille maintained its reliance on short-term housing through 2020. This dissertation explains the role of civic legacies in the integration policy of migrant Roma in Western Europe, by leveraging 36 stakeholder interviews and 1,344 archival items across three local archives, to analyze housing integration policy for EU migrant Roma in France between 1990-2020.

Author

• Schraudenbach, Emily Mae

Language

• English

Keyword

• Migrant Integration Policy
• France
• Housing Policy
• Roma

Date created

• 2024

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Political Science

Degree

• Ph.D.

Advisor

• Hale, Henry

Committee Member(s)

• Morgan, Kimberly
• Silver, Hilary
• Barnett, Michael
• Arrington, Celeste

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/ft848r44g