Abstract
This chapter seeks to show how the protection of immigration rights and the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity have been used among municipal leaders in Philadelphia as strategies for urban economic development. Starting in 2008, Mayor Nutter and his administration adopted a clear pro-immigrant position by implementing two policies designed to improve undocumented and/or non-English speaking residents’ access to public services: a confidentiality policy that prevents local government agencies from transmitting information on legal status to the federal government; and a language access policy requiring these agencies to translate municipal documents and to offer free interpretation services. The discourse of local stakeholders and the language of the pro-immigrant municipal policies, now overseen by an Office of Immigrant Affairs, reveal that these initiatives contribute to branding Philadelphia as an international, tolerant, and “welcoming” city, in an effort to attract highly educated workers and entrepreneurs who are themselves immigrants, or who appreciate the cultural diversity that immigrants bring.
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Notes
- 1.
After the initial success of the national bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Richard Florida published five more books on urban development that continued to popularize the notion that cities should create environments that appeal to target groups such as gay men and artists in order to achieve prosperity. Richard Florida also became a senior correspondent for The Atlantic magazine in 2011 and founded the web magazine and social media newsfeed CityLab in 2014. The Creative Class Group, the advisory firm he created with his wife, has promoted his theories through its work with dozens of chambers of commerce, boards of trade, development corporations, and consortiums such as the League of California Cities or the National League of Cities (a network representing 1600 U.S. municipalities). However, despite Florida’s academic focus on cities, the firm’s clients in the United States include only five municipal governments: those of Miami, Florida; Newark, New Jersey; Austin and El Paso, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. The bulk of the firm’s consulting work has been conducted with corporations such as Goldman Sachs, Google, and Microsoft; media groups such as the BBC, The Economist, and the New York Times; and universities, including the London School of Economics, Princeton, and MIT (www.creativeclass.com).
- 2.
Situated on the Atlantic seaboard between New England and the original Southern colonies, Philadelphia was the nation’s first capital (1790–1800) and one of the three principal commercial ports in the early decades of the republic, along with New York and Boston. It has remained among the five most populous metropolitan areas since.
- 3.
U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census (1980, 1990, 2000, 2010).
- 4.
According to Jerome Hodos, “second cities” compensate for their lack of centrality in finance and corporate management by specializing in niche sectors in research and culture that give them international visibility and allow them to participate in globalization at their level (2011).
- 5.
While four residential tracts in South Philadelphia were over 20% foreign born in 2000, and seven were between 10% and 20% foreign born, only two in neighbourhoods north of the centre were more than 10% foreign born.
- 6.
Census tracts, defined by the United States Census Bureau as “small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity”, contain an average population of 4000 inhabitants (www.census.gov/geo/reference/gtc/gtc_ct.html).
Please see http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/resources/Pages/Maps.aspx for a map of census tracts in Philadelphia.
- 7.
- 8.
The United States Conference of Mayors, a non-partisan consortium of 1408 cities with populations of at least 30,000 inhabitants, convenes at an annual four-day conference (https://www.usmayors.org/the-conference/about/).
- 9.
Cultural Passport to Philadelphia Week.
- 10.
Later to be renamed simply, “Office of Immigrant Affairs”.
- 11.
As of July 2017, 98 city governments were members of this generously funded organization, supported by the Clinton Global Initiative, among others.
- 12.
- 13.
ICE is the federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration law.
- 14.
The application of the policy by police officers has proved to be uneven in practice, but the city’s position––and thus its public message––has remained consistent in regard to the protection of undocumented residents who are the victims and witnesses of legal infractions. Although a federal programme (Secure Communities) implementing automatic information sharing between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents weakened the effectiveness of the policy for several years, this loophole was partially closed in 2014, when Nutter acted to limit the situations under which Philadelphia’s corrections system would honour requests by federal authorities to detain immigrants.
- 15.
Interview conducted in July 2010.
- 16.
Interview conducted in July 2010.
- 17.
Interviews conducted July 2010.
- 18.
Speech delivered at People’s Park, July 2010.
- 19.
As of December 2015, 38 cities and 4 states formally limited their cooperation with the federal authorities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (National Immigration Law Center 2015).
- 20.
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Sanders, H. (2018). Immigrant Rights as an Exercise in Urban Branding: The Case of Philadelphia (2008–2015). In: Lacroix, T., Desille, A. (eds) International Migrations and Local Governance. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65996-1_3
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