Abstract

This article aims at contributing to the understanding of the functioning of immigrant local policies. With this purpose, we analyse the accommodation measures, since they usually need great expenditure and give rise to a heated debate, confronting local actors with difficult trade-offs and casting light on their strategies. We will start by investigating the logics of action followed by local actors (local governments, third sector organizations and the police), the interactions among them and their reactions to the national legal framework. Afterwards, we will present the development of local accommodation policies for migrants organized in three different phases according to the level of emergency and national government intervention in this policy field. On the basis of these results, we will outline the factors of dynamism and inertia of local accommodation policies for migrants.