{"id":9206,"date":"2022-04-20T09:30:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T07:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/?p=9206"},"modified":"2022-04-20T09:34:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T07:34:48","slug":"4mi-cities-partnerships-with-city-governments-are-key-to-better-data-on-urban-mixed-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/articles\/4mi-cities-partnerships-with-city-governments-are-key-to-better-data-on-urban-mixed-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"4Mi Cities: Partnerships with City Governments Are Key To Better Data on Urban Mixed Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people who cross borders – including refugees fleeing persecution and conflict, victims of trafficking, and people seeking better lives and opportunities\u2013 do so to reach cities. An estimated 60 percent of refugees reside in cities and one in every five international migrants is estimated to live in just 20 cities around the world.<\/a> \u00a0Urban areas are increasingly becoming the primary destination for refugees and migrants, whether for permanent residence, temporary settlement, or short-term transit. Given the growing trend of urban mixed migration, urban policies cannot ignore migration and migration policies cannot ignore urbanisation<\/a>. In other words, the future of global migration will be directly shaped by how effectively cities are equipped to address accelerating urbanization.<\/p>\n

Reliable data on the profiles, needs, and preferences of refugee and migrant populations residing in cities is vital to effective urban migration policies. Recognizing this, the Marrakech Mayors Declaration on \u201cCities Working Together for Migrants and Refugees\u201d<\/a> \u2013 which stems from the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees \u2013 includes over 150 mayors and city governments that have committed to, \u201cimproving data collection and measurement of progress,\u201d and calling on the international community, national governments, and the private sector to, \u201cwork with key international city networks to improve multilateral cooperation, implement local or joint programs, measure progress, and gather and share data with national and international actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While research projects on mixed migration are commonplace among the international community, few heed the call of the Marrakech Mayors Declaration to work in direct and equal partnership with city governments on the design, collection, and analysis of research methodologies and the uptake of the data they produce.<\/p>\n

This is where the Mayors Migration Council and Mixed Migration Centre\u2019s (MMC\u00b2)\u2019s 4Mi Cities<\/strong> project comes in. Working in close partnership with three city governments (Medell\u00edn and Barranquilla in Colombia, and Mexico City in Mexico), MMC\u00b2 designed and implemented a pilot data collection project to better survey refugees\u2019 and migrants\u2019 urban experience to cultivate improved policy and service provision at the city government level.<\/p>\n

Like many other urban centers, the three cities included in this pilot project are hosts to refugee and migrant populations, including Venezuelan refugees and migrants from Central America. On the one hand, whether the cities represent an intended or final destination or not, they each offer migrant populations economic opportunities, access to services, and a diaspora community. On the other hand, barriers such as xenophobia and a lack of knowledge regarding available services and programs persist among migrant communities in all three cities. As grantees of the Mayors Migration Council\u2019s Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF), each of the three city governments have deployed ongoing projects to meet refugees\u2019 and migrants\u2019 needs, but previously lacked the data to better understand how to expand these projects to serve as effective building blocks to the cities\u2019 long-term migration policies, programs, and objectives.<\/p>\n

As project partners, these city governments contributed to survey design and mapping, utilized their own staff to serve as survey enumerators, and hosted multi-stakeholder workshops to validate the over 300 individual surveys collected in each city. Across each Latin American city in the pilot project, common findings included:<\/p>\n