Immigrant Integration Governance and Local Development Models in “Left-Behind” Places
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422/mig.23877.031Keywords:
integration governance, left-behind areas, projectification, local rural development, rural revitalizationAbstract
Amid demographic decline and outmigration from Portugal’s inner territories, local authorities increasingly position international migration as a lever for rural revitalization. Taking a place-based perspective, this paper analyses the emergence of local immigrant integration governance models developed in two diversifying rural municipalities. Based on interviews with 30 local experts, we show how each municipality’s broader development logic shapes subsequent policies, or non-policies, adopted to deal with migration and diversity. Two local contexts are contrasted, one based on a traditional growth model built on agro-industry in the Baixo Alentejo region and another hinged on a model of place branding and rural innovation in the Beira Baixa region. We trace how dependence on external, often EU-funds, generates a mode of “project-driven governance” (Ponzo & Milazzo, 2026) and how local actors navigate instability. Finally, we examine how the rise of political discontent in both areas is reshaping the local politics of migrant integration.
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