GlocalMIC project

WHY CLOCALMIC?

GlocalMIC starts from a practical reality: crises are no longer exceptional events but a constant feature of governance. Climate disasters, pandemics, armed conflicts, and economic disruptions increasingly overlap, cross borders, and affect multiple levels of government at once, yet their consequences are ultimately experienced locally. Global cities such as Barcelona, Bangkok, New York, Bogotá, or Johannesburg are highly interconnected hubs of mobility, trade, and political exchange, but they are also home to large and diverse migrant populations, including people facing legal, economic, and social vulnerability. When crises occur, migrants are often disproportionately affected through job loss, barriers to services, uncertain administrative status, language obstacles, or housing insecurity. In practice, local authorities and  local stakeholders society are usually the first actors responding on the ground.

WHAT IS GLOCALMIC’S OBJECTIVE?

GlocalMIC asks a practical question with direct policy implications: are global cities prepared to protect migrants when different types of crises unfold? This matters for urban emergency planning, social services, intergovernmental coordination, and long-term resilience strategies, since strengthening preparedness to protect migrants ultimately strengthens cities’ capacity to protect everyone. Against this backdrop, the project understands preparedness as the capacity to reduce harm, adapt to changing conditions, coordinate actors and resources, and transform institutional practices that expand protection. Through a comparative and global approach, GlocalMIC is based on the idea that global cities possess administrative capacity and adaptive potential that position them to lead preparedness efforts, while their connections with other cities, civil society, businesses, national governments, international organisations, and migrant communities allow them to influence broader governance processes.

HOW IS GLOCALMIC DEVELOPED?

GlocalMIC unfolds in two main steps: first, it develops a practical framework to define and assess what “crisis preparedness to protect migrants” means at the city level through concrete dimensions and indicators applicable across different urban contexts; second, it maps and compares how selected global cities perform in practice in order to identify enabling and constraining factors shaping preparedness and protection during crises. By focusing on preparedness rather than only emergency response, the project contributes to ongoing discussions on anticipatory governance, urban resilience, inclusive crisis management, and multi-level migration governance.