Research on migration governance at the local level in European countries often refers to the perspective of multilevel governance (MLG) by examining the roles of different levels of government, non-governmental actors, and various negotiations between actors at various scales. This study aims to synthesize qualitative evidence from primary studies to understand systematically better and explore themes that intersect with multilevel governance studies in migration. This meta-synthesis process is done by thematic synthesis following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). The study results show that multilevel governance and migration strengthen on themes such as actors, governance, implementation, integration, and interaction. Based on the analysis of word similarity in the 500-word cloud, it was also found to be the top dominant, such as policy, local, cities, urban, governance, migration, level, integration, government, and social. The study recommends research directions for non-European countries by examining the adaptation of the MLG concept, analyzing the impact of decentralization on the effectiveness of MLG, looking at public-private sector partnerships in developing countries, as well as comparative studies between non-European countries to contribute to the theory of multilevel governance. This study implies that there still needs to be research on multilevel governance in the field of migration that specifically conducts qualitative meta-synthesis.

multilevel governance; migration; actors; governance; implementation; integration; interaction; qualitative meta-synthesis

Agranoff, R. (2018). Local governments in multilevel governance: The administrative dimension. Lexington Books.

and governance policies in the United States. World Affairs Journal, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0043820019864103

Auslender, E. (2022). Multi-level Governance in Refugee Housing and Integration Policy: a Model of Best Practice in Leverkusen. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(3), 949–970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00876-4

Aydar, Z. (2022). The Life Opportunities of Young Refugees: Understanding the Role, Function and Perceptions of Local Stakeholders. Social Sciences, 11(11), 527. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11110527

Bazurli, R. (2019). Local Governments and Social Movements in the ‘Refugee Crisis’: Milan and Barcelona as ‘Cities of Welcome.’ South European Society and Politics, 24(3), 343–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2019.1637598

Bazurli, R., & Campomori, F. (2022). Further to the bottom of the hierarchy: the stratification of forced migrants’ welfare rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Citizenship Studies, 26(8), 1091–1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2022.2131073

Bazurli, R., & Kaufmann, D. (2023). Insurgent Asylum Policies in European Cities: A Multi-Level Governance Perspective. Urban Affairs Review, 59(4), 1129–1159. https://doi.org/10.1177/10780874221091594

Bisong, A. (2018). Trans-regional institutional cooperation as multilevel governance: ECOWAS migration policy and the EU. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(8), 1294–1309. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1441607

Blauberger, M., Grabbe, C., & Ripoll Servent, A. (2023). EU free movement of people: fully recovered or suffering from long COVID? Journal of European Public Policy, 30(4), 696–720. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2022.2140818

Caponio, T. (2018). Immigrant integration beyond national policies? Italian cities’ participation in European city networks. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(12), 2053–2069. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1341711

Caponio, T. (2021). Governing Migration through Multi‐Level Governance? City Networks in Europe and the United States*. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 59(6), 1590–1606. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13214

Caponio, T. (2022). Scaling migration network governance? City networks and civil society in multilevel policymaking dynamics. Global Networks, 22(3), 397–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12365

Caponio, T., & Jones-Correa, M. (2017). Theorising migration policy in multilevel states: the multilevel governance perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(12), 1995–2010. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1341705

Caponio, T., & Pettrachin, A. (2023). Modes of Migration City Network Mobilization in the EU and US Multilevel Institutional Systems: The Neglected Role of Politics. International Migration Review, 57(4), 1374–1401. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183221149921

Emilsson, H., & Öberg, K. (2022). Housing for Refugees in Sweden: Top-Down Governance and its Local Reactions. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(2), 613–631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00864-8

Fakhoury, T. (2019). Multi-level governance and migration politics in the Arab world: the case of Syria’s displacement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(8), 1310–1326. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1441609

Falguera, X. C., & Serra, M. (2021). Immigrant Integration Policies in Catalonia (1993-2017): Political Frames. Migraciones, 52, 221–247. https://doi.org/10.14422/mig.i52.y2021.008

Fourot, A. C., Healy, A., & Flamant, A. (2022). French participation in transnational migration networks: understanding city (dis)involvement and “passivism.” Local Government Studies, 48(6), 1152–1174. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2020.1857246

Garcés-Mascareñas, B., & Gebhardt, D. (2020). Barcelona: municipalist policy entrepreneurship in a centralist refugee reception system. Comparative Migration Studies, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-020-0173-z

Glorius, B., Oesch, L., Nienaber, B., & Doomernik, J. (2019). Refugee Reception Within a Common European Asylum System. Erdkunde. pp. 19–30.

Gunn, A. (2019). Immigration and Integration Policy and the Complexity of Multi-level Governance: A Case Study of British Columbia. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 35(4), 603–618. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2019.1619472

Heimann, C., Gluns, D., & Schammann, H. (2022). Characterising two German city networks: the interplay of internal structure, issue orientation and outreach strategies. Local Government Studies, 48(6), 1091–1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2021.1964476

Hillmann, F. (2021). Becoming glocal bureaucrats: mayors, institutions and civil society in smaller cities in Brandenburg during the ‘migration crisis’, 2015–17. Territory, Politics, Governance, 10(3), 327–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2021.1936147

Homsy, G. C., Liu, Z., & Warner, M. E. (2018). Multilevel Governance: Framing the Integration of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Policymaking. International Journal of Public Administration, 42(7), 572–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2018.1491597

Hooghe, L., & Marks, G. (2001). Multilevel governance and European integration. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

International Organization for Migration. (2017). The International Migration Report 2017 (Highlights). Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.

Kuschminder, K. (2021). The Multi-level Governance of Asylum in Italy: Understanding Eritreans’ Secondary Movements in Search of Relocation within Italy. Journal of Refugee Studies, 34(1), 285–304. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fey074

Larrison, J., & Raadschelders, J. C. N. (2020). Understanding Migration: The Case for Public Administration. International Journal of Public Administration, 43(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1620772

Larrison, J., Raadschelders, J. C. N., & Thapar, A. V. (2019). Refugee migration as wicked problem: Controlling, palliative

Li, H., & Yi, H. (2014). Multilevel governance and deployment of solar PV panels in U.S. cities. Energy Policy, 69, 19–27. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2014.03.006

McAuliffe, M. and Oucho, L.A. (eds.), 2024. World Migration Report 2024. International Organization for Migration (IOM), Geneva.

Meijer, M., Popławska, J. Z., & Szytniewski, B. (2023). Spaces of Decoupling in the Netherlands and Poland: Emerging Local Governance Networks for Hosting Non-EU Migrants in Peripheral and Shrinking Areas. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 24(S5), 839–862. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01057-1

Mescoli, E. (2021). Multi-Level Governance and Sanctuary Cities: The Case of Liège (Belgium) and Undocumented Migrants. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 19(3), 287–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2021.1924413

Methley, A. M., Campbell, S., Chew-Graham, C., et al. (2014). PICO, PICOS and SPIDER: a comparison study of specificity and sensitivity in three search tools for qualitative systematic reviews. BMC Health Services Research, 14(1), 579. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-014-0579-0

Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., & Altman, D. G. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine, 6(7), e1000097

Ott, J. S., & Boonyarak, P. (2020). Introduction to the Special Issue International Migration Policies, Practices, and Challenges Facing Governments. International Journal of Public Administration, 43(2), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1672188

Özdemir, G. Ş. (2022). Urban solidarity typology: A comparison of European cities since the crisis of refuge in 2015. Cities, 130, 103976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103976

Panizzon, M., & van Riemsdijk, M. (2019). Introduction to Special issue: ‘migration governance in an era of large movements: a multi-level approach.’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(8), 1225–1241. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1441600

Perna, R. (2018). Migrant Health Policies. Actors and Levels in a Multi‐Level Perspective. International Migration, 56(5), 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12426

Piccoli, L. (2020). Traditions of regional citizenship: Explaining subnational variation of the right to healthcare for undocumented immigrants. Regional Studies, 54(11), 1498–1507. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1693530

Piccoli, L. (2022). Multilevel strategies of political inclusion: The contestation of voting rights for foreign residents by regional assemblies in Europe. Regional and Federal Studies, 32(3), 331–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2021.1921742

Pipkin, S. (2022). Redirecting Leviathan: discovering local room to manoeuvre in US-Mexico border policy. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(9), 2268–2284. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2019.1616540

Polat, R. K., & Lowndes, V. (2022). How Does Multi-Level Governance Create Capacity to Address Refugee Needs, and with What Limitations? An Analysis of Municipal Responses to Syrian Refugees in Istanbul. Journal of Refugee Studies, 35(1), 51–73. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feab101

Scholten, P. W. A. (2013). Agenda dynamics and the multi-level governance of intractable policy controversies: the case of migrant integration policies in the Netherlands. Policy Sciences, 46(3), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-012-9170-x

Scholten, P., Engbersen, G., Ostaijen, M. van, & Snel, E. (2018). Multilevel governance from below: how Dutch cities respond to intra-EU mobility. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(12), 2011–2033. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1341707

Shivakoti, R., Howlett, M., Fernandez, V., et al. (2019). Governing international regime complexes through multi-level governance mechanisms: lessons from water, forestry and migration policy. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 37(4), 658–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2019.1662379

Spencer, S. (2018). Multi-level governance of an intractable policy problem: migrants with irregular status in Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(12), 2034–2052. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1341708

Stürner-Siovitz, J., & Heimann, C. (2023). The EU Urban Partnership on Inclusion: Institutionalizing Local–Supranational Integration Governance. International Migration Review, 57(4), 1362–1373. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183221102419

Thomas, J., & Harden, A. (2008). Methods for the thematic synthesis of qualitative research in systematic reviews. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 8(1), 45. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-8-45

Thouez, C. (2018). Strengthening migration governance: the UN as ‘wingman.’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(8), 1242–1257. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2018.1441604

Walsh, D., & Downe, S. (2005). Meta-synthesis method for qualitative research: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 50(2), 204–211. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03380.x

Yeo, J., & Huang, X. (2019). Migration in Public Administration Research: A Systematic Review and Future Directions. International Journal of Public Administration, 43(2), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1672731