Conference Program

In an era of escalating urbanization and global migration, this Fulbright research investigates the untapped potential of sister city relationships as conduits for leveraging people-to-people ties in fortifying international alliances. The project uses a US-Ecuador case study based on sister city relationships in Cuenca and Quito. Grounded in eight months of field research during Ecuador's 2023-2024 state of emergency, the study poses pivotal questions: Are sister city agreements outdated, or do they still offer contemporary benefits? If so, how can governments unleash their latent potential?

To address these inquiries, the investigation employs a sequential mixed-methods approach in collaboration with the University of Cuenca and the San Francisco University of Quito, adhering to local ethics standards. Qualitative data on the impact of sister city relationships on local development is gathered through semi-structured interviews with cultural, diplomatic, and economic stakeholders, while quantitative survey data identifies broader trends in perceptions of sister city relations. The analytical framework, supported by a comparative analysis across cities, scrutinizes how factors such as diaspora connections and global prominence affect the assets and limitations intrinsic to sister cities partnerships. Ethnographic analysis from participant observation in municipal offices in Cuenca and Quito anchors the research in practical considerations faced by mayors governing amidst internal conflict. This study contributes to international relations and paradiplomacy discourse by proposing an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that blends ideas of social power, kinship, and peripheral realism to analyze sister cities as tools of agency and identity in the context of global diplomacy and displacement.

The Right to the City is a cornerstone between International Migration Law and local migration policies based on Human Rights. Local governments can display a proactive migration paradiplomacy in contrast to restrictive national migration policies based on national security.

Researches about immigration and the Right to the City have developed three main areas of inquiry: 1) how migrants build urban spaces and develop place-making strategies, 2) the local progressive policies and legislation of cities and local authorities highlighting sanctuary cities, city diplomacy and city networks of solidarity with refugees, and 3) the expansion and reformulation of citizenship and the right to the city by immigrants.

This paper analyses these three areas of inquiry through the comparative analysis of Buenos Aires (BA) and Mexico City (CdMX). The purpose is to contrast the historical migration movements exercising the right to the city in BA with the case of CdMx, because its constitution was enacted in 2017 and supposed to grant the Right to the City. CdMx Constitution also consider different immigrant populations such as refugees, asylum seekers and internal displaced.

This paper is based on ten interviews with local organizations serving migrant populations in Mexico City and eleven interviews with migrants from different Latin American countries. These interviews reveal how migrants are dealing with CdMx both as transit and refugee city, as well how they evaluate the local government service delivery. In this paper, we highlight the differences between the cases of CdMx and BA.

The idea of a Sanctuary City was born in the US back in the 1980s. Help offered by Sanctuary Cities to illegal immigrants is not only limited to basic needs such as food or shelter but also covers the educational needs of children and legal help for adults. The concept has gained popularity in the 21st century, and now Sanctuary Cities exist among others in Canada and the United Kingdom. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022, and the refugee crisis caused by that, many Polish cities, most notably near-border Lublin and Rzeszów, offered shelter for civilians running away from war. Even if the nature of the need is different, comparing and examining both cases of city help is worthy of execution. Therefore, the main goal of the research is to juxtapose Sanctuary Cities and Polish border cities helping Ukrainian refugees and list the similarities and differences between them. Research methods used in the research are data analysis, comparative analysis, case study method, and analysis of data collected through surveys.

On March 24, 2023, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau put an end to one of Canada's most serious migration crises by amending the Safe Third Country Agreement to apply to the entire Canada-U.S. border, closing almost all opportunities for asylum seekers to apply in Canada from the United States. As a reminder, from 2017 to 2023, Canada faced the largest irregular migration crisis in its history as some 100,000 asylum seekers crossed the Canada-U.S. border between official crossing points, mostly in Quebec. No one can ignore the fact that this is a politicized response to a human rights question. Indeed, the Trudeau government does not appear to have sought to close the border to ensure the safety of asylum seekers, as the system has become irregular, but particularly orderly. Instead, it seems to have responded to two major political pressures, both internal and external. First, it acceded to requests from the provincial governments of Quebec and Ontario. In so doing, it made an electoral decision, anticipating the next federal election. Secondly, this decision appears to be a response to the various actions undertaken by Quebec in terms of a regional paradiplomacy between Quebec and New York State. In this context, what were the effects of paradiplomacy on the renegotiation of the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement? Several semi-structured interviews with the actors involved, as well as an analysis of the political discourse, will be conducted to answer this question.