Pushing for Participation: the Role of Local Authorities in Shaping Civic Integration in the Netherlands

As of summer 2017, all newcomers in the Netherlands need to sign a 'participation declaration' as part of their civic integration. Municipalities are responsible for offering a trajectory on what it means to participate in Dutch and local society, and are free in shaping how they do this. This has led to a wide range of responses, ranging from programs designed by civic organizations, to those set up by specialized companies and by the municipalities themselves. On the basis of interviews, participant observation, grey literature and other textual material this paper addresses the question to what extent, on what grounds and why local authorities differ in the way in which they shape these trajectories and celebrate the outcomes. It doing so, it seeks to contribute to theory-formation on local level reception and integration of refugees, and on the way in which local authorities - and key actors and individuals - imagine themselves and the rights and responsibilities associated with local and national citizenship. A grounded analysis offers insight into the translation of national policies within the local context, but also into the decoupling of local from national policies, and the different ways in which citizenship is understood, defined and constituted in day-to-day encounters in subnational settings.