How cities and CSOs try to include undocumented migrants: The case of Ghent, Belgium

When cities try to include undocumented migrants, they often do so by collaborating closely with civil society actors to ensure access to specific welfare services. This paper analyses ‘accommodation and orientation’, a pilot project led by the city of Ghent (Belgium) which offers shelter, socio-legal and psycho-social support to homeless undocumented migrants. While officially an initiative of the city, the project brings together a complex arrangement of actors, including federal state actors and civil society organizations (CSOs). By situating the preparation, implementation and day-to-day functioning of this project within a dense field of state and civil actors, this paper demonstrates how the relationships between these actors fluctuate on a continuum of cooperation and opposition throughout time. Based on ongoing ethnographic research, we unravel how the discourse around and the objectives of the project vary amongst the involved actors according to their interpretation of support for undocumented migrants. Lastly, we reflect on how the hostility of the regional political context towards this group of migrants raises the political pressure on this ‘pilot project’, and ultimately leads to ambivalent strategies in terms of public communication, criteria of inclusion and day-to-day support practices.