There is a growing recognition that cities are agents of migration governance in Europe and the U.S. Most cities are becoming active in building narratives and practices on how to manage diversity. Barcelona has been one of the leading cities in Europe advancing and implementing an intercultural policy paradigm, even before the 2008 Intercultural cities program of the Council of Europe, which currently coordinates a network of over 150 cities to better welcome immigrants. There is also a new trend in Europe, led by Catalonia, to engage regions in this intercultural philosophy.

            We discuss the intercultural policy paradigm from a conceptual and policy point of view at the city and regional scale, compare how U.S. cities and States manage diversity, which normative perspectives they follow, and how interculturalism can be a common ground of dialogue between Europe and U.S. cities.
            Barcelona was a city that had very few international immigrants before the 1990s, and today over 20 percent of the population is foreign-born. The integration of immigrants into this city has been an overall success story for immigrants and locals. Part of the reason is a theoretical and policy model called interculturalism.

            The first panel discusses this policy model and its implications for the U.S. The second panel consists of seven flash 5-minute presentations showing results from immigration research conducted by students and researchers in AU’s Immigration Lab:

1) Melvin Saravia, MA student in Sociology Research and Practice (SORP), “Central American Immigrant Youth Experiences from the Sponsor’s Perspective.”

2) Karissa Stanio, AU Junior, International Studies at SIS and Spanish translation minor at CAS, “Siempre Pendiente: Expectations and Relationships between Youth Migrants and their Sponsors” via Zoom

3) Isabella Goris, Administrative and Student Employee Specialist, AU Library, SORP graduate 2022, “Disability among Mexican-Americans.”

4) Josh Dietz, MA student in Sociology, “Internal Immigration and Housing in the United States and China.”

5) Bashir Mobasher, Ph.D. Afghan Scholar in Exile, Post-Doc at Sociology and Immigraiton Lab, “Afghans in the DMV: Education and Job Matching.”

6) Carina Cione, MA. Program Coordinator, Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, “Immigration Realities.”

7) Daniel Jenks, MA, Deputy Director, Immigration Lab, “Reunited: Central American Youth and Family Separation.”