This paper focuses on how multiple actors promote civic and political participation of
immigrants locally. The dominant approach in scholarship on political participation of
immigrants —the political opportunity structure—focuses mostly on the role of local
institutional actors to examine the constraints and opportunities for immigrants’ civic and
political participation. We argue that this main focus on top-down actors and processes
does not allow for understanding the complexity of actors ...
This paper focuses on how multiple actors promote civic and political participation of
immigrants locally. The dominant approach in scholarship on political participation of
immigrants —the political opportunity structure—focuses mostly on the role of local
institutional actors to examine the constraints and opportunities for immigrants’ civic and
political participation. We argue that this main focus on top-down actors and processes
does not allow for understanding the complexity of actors and dynamics involved in the
promotion of immigrants’ participation in cities. For this reason, we propose to expand
our conceptualization of the city and to combine both top-down and bottom-up dynamics
to investigate how local contexts shape immigrants’ civic and political participation.
Drawing on empirical research in Italy and Spain, we map the multiplicity of actors
involved in the promotion of participation of immigrants in seven cities, identify the
channels they offer and assess how their interactions explain variations.
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