KITA Discourse Series 2026/1: New Trends in Migration Governance: Why Localities Matter
NEW TRENDS IN MIGRATION GOVERNANCE: WHY LOCALITIES MATTER
By:
PROF. DR. THOMAS LACROIX
CNRS Director of Research in Political Geography,
Centre for International Studies, Sciences Po, France
22 May 2026 (Friday)
10.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m.
KITA Meeting Room,
Level 4, Administration Building,
Kolej Keris Mas, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
Bangi, Selangor
Abstract
Cities have played a key role in the writing and implementation of the Global Compact for Migrations. This involvement is the consequence of two decades of a “local turn” of migration governance. This presentation investigates the gradual rise of cities as a central player in migration governance. It sheds a light on the drivers explaining this trend: the transformation of city/state relations, the surge of urban diplomacy and the security turn of migration policies entailing the expansion of border-work in arrival cities.
Presenter’s Profile
Thomas Lacroix is a geographer, CNRS director of research at the Centre for International Research of Sciences Po Paris and a fellow of the Institut Convergence Migrations. Thomas Lacroix works on the social and spatial aspects of transnational migratory worlds and the way they affect states and territories. His research focuses more specifically on the formation of city networks on migration issues and their influence on both local reception policies and the international governance of migration. He has published some fifteen books and special issues of journals, including, with Amandine Desille, International Migrations and Local Governance. A Global Perspective (Palgrave 2018), with Amandine Desille, International Migrations and Local Governance. A Global Perspective (Palgrave 2018), The Transnational Society (Palgrave 2023) and the Transnational State (Palgrave 2024) and Death in Migration (Bristol 2026).
Moderator’s Profile
Laavanya Kathiravelu is Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research sits at the intersections between migration & citizenship, urban studies, and race and ethnicity. Drawing from Asia and the Gulf, her work seeks to broaden epistemological frameworks in the social sciences. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (2011-2013) and a Fung Fellow at Princeton University (2015-2016). She was also a Fulbright Scholar and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the City University of New York (2022). In 2023, she won the John Lent Best Article award at the Asian Studies Association. She is a member of the Global DeCentre. She comments regularly on public forums and through op-eds on issues of migration, race and diversity.
Programme:
- Date: 22 May 2026 (Friday)
- Time: 10.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m.
- Venue: KITA Meeting Room, Level 4, Administration Building, Kolej Keris Mas, UKM Bangi
- Platform: Zoom (link TBA)
10:00 a.m. Introduction & Welcoming Remarks by Moderator: Assoc. Prof. Laavanya Kathiravelu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
10:05 a.m. Presentation of discourse: “New Trends in Migration Governance: Why Localities Matter” by Prof. Dr. Thomas Lacroix, CNRS Director of research in Political Geography, Centre for International Studies, Sciences Po, France
11:00 a.m. Q & A
11:30 a.m. Closing
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the presentation(s) are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Organizers.
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