African Intermediary Cities as Actors and Partners in Urban Migration Governance (Sfax, Tunisia)
Sfax is the second largest city in Tunisia. Located on the Mediterranean coast, the city is an important economic center connecting the north and south of the country. Sfax is home to approximately 615,000 inhabitants, with approximately 950,000 inhabitants living in the wider agglomeration. The city experiences mixed rural-urban, interregional and international migration. The increasingly difficult socio-economic situation, financial constraints, gender dynamics, the absence of a national migration strategy and the politicization of mobility issues between North Africa and Europe have a unique impact on migration dynamics in Sfax. The municipality participates in the international Mediterranean City-to-City Migration network (MC2CM) and aims to address migration issues at the local level. In addition, a wide range of other actors are directly or indirectly involved in migration and displacement. The stakeholder mapping conducted by the Equal Partnership project shows that civil society and international actors have created a referral and coordination system on migration issues. Representatives of national agencies and the municipality sometimes attend these meetings, and the municipality has worked in partnership with migrant associations. However, the local scope for action remains very limited in the absence of local-national dialogues.
