Abstract
In the city of Lyon, two competing local authorities have been taking opposite political stances on whether to include local migrant organizations to international cooperation and decentralized cooperation programmes. The Métropole de Lyon refuses to consider them while Région Rhône-Alpes warmly supports their participation. However, despite a clear opposition on ideological positions and governance practices, both of these perspectives are rooted in the same conventional and long-lasting French integrationist paradigm, and the same technical vision of development processes. Secondly, drawing on two case studies, this chapter looks at the impact of this political and institutional frame on migrant organizations inclusion into local networks of cooperation for development. It has very weak consequences because of overlapping and interlaced governance levels, the active presence of public-private partnerships, and the network density. Therefore, despite the absence of shared governance, there is a growing experience of migrant organization presence in development networks, which in turn may lead to higher participation claims.
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- 1.
By convention, the French names and quotations are written in italics in this chapter. The unofficial translation of administrations and authorities’ names was made by this chapter’s author.
- 2.
This research was conducted prior and after two territorial reforms. First, on January 1st, 2016, the Région Rhône-Alpes became Région Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne, which modified the delimitation of the region. Second, the Métropole de Lyon was created on January 1st, 2015. In spite of these modifications, the division of competences among the directions has not changed and the conclusions we draw from our analysis are still valid. For example, before the Métropole’s reform, the prime contractor for development programmes was the Communauté Urbaine de Lyon, through its public inter-municipal cooperation authority (EPCI) Grand Lyon. To this day, its absorption by the Métropole has changed neither its internal organization nor the programmes it leads, and hence allows us to analyse its actions as a whole from 2012 to 2015. Therefore, for the sake of clarity, we refer to these organizations as the Métropole de Lyon and the Région Rhône-Alpes throughout the chapter.
- 3.
Of course, the regional territory is wider than the one of the city of Lyon, but the former includes the latter.
- 4.
In this chapter, the expression “migrant” qualifies any person who has experienced a transnational displacement that has led him or her to France. While some have become French nationals, others have not. We use this word rather than “immigrant” or “emigrant”, which convey a national point of view and a partial perspective on the migrant social condition (Sayad 1999).
- 5.
The place of “origin” is an emic expression. It can be the birthplace of the person, or the birthplace of one of his parents. But it can also be a place he or she had no link with before the foundation of the association and the project implementation. Yet this place is referred by the person––or/and by his partners––as the place of “origin” because its geography, the groups who live there, and the characteristics that are assigned to them carries an imaginary representation of belonging. On that matter, see Belkacem (2013).
- 6.
OSIMs are migrant organizations conducting international development activities. This French administrative acronym was created in 1999 and is mostly used by the members and partners of the FORIM, Forum des Organisations issues des Migrations, the French national platform of migrant federations and collectives in France. Despite its ambiguities, we choose to use this acronym for writing and reading comfort.
- 7.
Some OSIMs match the hometown organization profile that has considerably been documented on both sides of the Atlantic since the early 1990s (Portes et al. 2007; Guarnizo and Smith 1998; Daum 1998; Çăglar 2006; Lacroix 2016, 2005). But most of the organizations we have met have a different profile: there often is neither a pre-existent village solidarity nor a shared “origin” between OSIM members. Yet all of them are willing to lead development projects abroad (water and sanitation, support system for agro-pastoral production, schools, community health centres, vocational training…) in a special place––place of “origin”––to which one or more of the OSIM members have a sense of belonging. On that matter, see Vincent-Mory (2016).
- 8.
We made this broad estimate from a careful analysis of the association registration repertoires in the seven préfectures in Rhône-Alpes between 1981 and 2015, combined with our knowledge of local association networks. The lower estimate represents OSIMs currently active in 2015. The high estimate includes migrant community organizations which may not develop charity projects abroad (81), diaspora or migrant representation and right defence organizations which may not develop charity projects abroad (12), charity organizations acting in Rhône-Alpes and/or abroad mentioning migrant initiatives which we have reasonably doubt (12 + 55), and supposedly inactive organizations.
- 9.
The annual number of new organizations has increased steadily since the 1980s.
- 10.
A multi-stakeholder agreement associates Région Rhône-Alpes with five African regions, Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Projects have been developed as part of the Exchanges and Partnerships Unit Rhône-Alpes-Western Africa, CEPRAOM. In addition, the Rhône-Alpes Region has signed conventions and implements cooperation programmes in Armenia, Laos, Vietnam, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, and Tunisia.
- 11.
Conseil régional de Rhône-Alpes, Délibération du Conseil Régional sur la Coopération Solidaire, n° 12.14.113, p. 1–2.
- 12.
The COSIM is a member of the French national plate-form FORIM, Forum des Organisations Issues des Migrations (Migrant Organizations Forum). It was founded in 2007 by the FORIM’s vice-president who had just moved to Lyon and a bunch of local OSIMs he has just met, most of them active in Cameroon, Benin, Congo Brazzaville, and Congo DRC. This solid link with a national network plays a part into the Région’s decision to support it.
- 13.
For instance, in 2010 the Collectif des Associations de Rhône-Alpes (CADR), the regional NGOs’ collective, received 27,000€ from the Région, and the nationally recognized Centre d’information et de solidarité avec l’Afrique (COSI), which has recently merged with Forum Réfugiés (in 2012), received 45,000€.
- 14.
XIII-3 section of the COSIM-Région Rhône-Alpes convention. See also: “Délibération de la commission permanente du Conseil Régional Coopération au Développement et Solidarités Internationales”, n°11.14.756, 16 Décembre 2011.
- 15.
Interview with M.N., 02/25/2013, Lyon.
- 16.
The CESER is a multi-actor instance, composed of regional civil society representatives, whose role is to propose political guidelines to the Regional Council.
- 17.
CESER, “Pour un nouveau modèle de coopération internationale”, Avis et contributions n°2013–12, adopté le 11 Juin 2013, p. 42; 44–45.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 44.
- 19.
In this quote, the use of the word “diaspora” is consistent with a current political and academic perspective trying to escape from victimizing and patronizing representations of migrants, and willing to place transnational popular movements (Manning 2009) and mobile capital (Faist 2013) at their core.
- 20.
For the record, only 305,000€ (3%) are allocated to the regional voluntary sector, for its assistance to local networks, associations, and citizens on public, education, social, economic, cultural, and voluntary matters (Région Rhône-Alpes administrative accounts 2014). Those figures have been stable for several years.
- 21.
Interview with M.N., op. cit.
- 22.
Such as the City of Lyon and 58 other cities and those of the Communauté Urbaine de Lyon and its public inter-municipal cooperation authority (EPCI Grand Lyon). It has also acquired several powers that belonged to the Département du Rhône. Before 2015, the EPCI Grand Lyon was the privileged interlocutor on the matter of international cooperation of our interviewees. As mentioned in footnote n°3, despite the reform the former EPCI team keeps running the international cooperation programmes.
- 23.
Lyon is also part––and was co-founder––of the 130 main European cities network, which is a higher proof of its international commitment. On that matter, see Payre and Saunier 2008.
- 24.
The translation of the French word “communautarisme” isn’t obvious. This term conveys a pejorative perception of the “communautés”––communities, which are supposedly impervious to the national belonging and would therefore be carrying a conflicting vision of the society group. The French republican ideology, which is built upon the universalistic model of the “republican equality”, considers the “comunautarisme” as its biggest threat. On this translation matter, see Boussahba-Bravard 2011.
- 25.
Interview with P.D.L., Chief Officer of Grand Lyon’s decentralized cooperation programmes (DEIEI), 02/04/2014.
- 26.
Interview with M.N., op. cit.
- 27.
The Fond Eau system was created by the July 11th, 2005 deliberation, under the Law 2005–95 of February 9th, 2005, named Oudin Law. This Law allows public entities in charge of water and public distribution sanitation to dedicate up to 1% of their budget to decentralized cooperation programmes or to humanitarian and global solidarity projects dealing with water and sanitation.
- 28.
Interview with P.M., field office manager at CADR, Collectif des Associations de Développement du Rhône; Rhone development associations Collective, Lyon, 09/08/2014.
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Vincent-Mory, C. (2018). Migrant Organizations and Local Government Cooperation for Development Programmes: A Comparative Analysis of Two Competing Local Authorities in Lyon, France. 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_7
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