Commune hospitalière »: The Role of Associative and Militant Local Fabric in Pushing for Urban Sanctuary Policies in Liège (Belgium)

Abstract

On Thursday, 14 september 2017, activists met in front of 51 city councils in Wallonia and Brussels (Belgian) to demand more welcoming municipal policies towards migrants. About nine months after the launch of this campaign called "make your city hospitable", more than 60city councils have adopted a motion urning to improve such policies. Launched by a huge national NGO, associative and militant local fabric contributes to shape the character and the outcome of the campaign in varied ways across the country. This study focuses on one of them. Through the City of Liège's case study, I analyze how associative professionals and political activists reshape the campaign according to urban city's realities. I explore further how the motion adopted by the City represents the living result of thes two social groups' balane of power . I thus hypothesize this power relation is the one existing between reformist and radical approaches and how, finally, the first outflanked the second.