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Portrait of Thomas Lacroix

Thomas Lacroix

Director of research in geography, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
EducationPhD (Geography and Political Sciences), University of Poitiers
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Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Spring 2024

Research focus while a CERC Scholar - The place of cities in the making of the transnational state

Cities have become a key player in the governance of migration. A growing number of municipalities are adopting policies geared toward immigrant populations, some to facilitate their integration, others, on the contrary, to impede their settlement. What's more is the coalition of cities forming around the world on migration issues. Be they local or international, dealing with integration of long-term immigrants or the recent arrival of asylum seekers, city networks upscale their mobilization and weigh in on national and international discussions. The scholarship has documented the variety of local policies undertaken around the world (Caponio et al. 2019, De Graauw 2014, Paquet 2022, etc.), the involvement of city networks (Lacroix 2021, Darling et al. 2010, Oomen 2019, Rodriguez et al. 2018) and the presence of cities in the global governance of migration (Thouez 2022, Stürner 2023, Lacroix 2023). However, the link between this dynamic and the evolution of governmental migration policies remains a blind spot. Some argue that city mobilization is a symptom of a decoupling between local realities and security oriented national policies (Oomen 2021), others argue that they are the outcome of a local turn of integration policies with states delegating to municipalities the management of immigrant integration (Caponio and Borkert 2010).

Thomas' research embeds current trends into the broader transformation of the state. New forms of public intervention and decentralization policies on the one hand, the externalization and internalization of border control on the other have led to a transnationalization of state structures. It is contended that city activism is linked to these distinct dynamics. Thomas intends to foster a transatlantic dialogue around this hypothesis. Such a dialogue will feed into the making of a world atlas of cities and migration policies.

Related to CERC research theme: Migration and the City

Career Achievements

Thomas is CNRS Director of research in geography. He has held research positions at the CEDEM (University of Liège), the Centre Jacques Berque (Rabat), the CRER (University of Warwick), the International Migration Institute (Oxford University), Migrinter (University of Poitiers) and the Maison Française of Oxford. He regularly teaches at the master level at Sciences Po, Oxford University, the University of Poitiers and the University St Joseph in Beyrouth.

Thomas is associate editor of Migration Studies, editor of the series "Migrations" at the Presses Universitaires François Rabelais and sits on the editorial board of Migration and Development (Routledge). He is fellow of the Institut Convergence Migrations in Paris and research associate at Migrinter, the Maison Française of Oxford and the Kellogg College of Oxford. He is also the co-PI with Bénédicte Michalon (Passage/University of Bordeaux) of the Localacc programme (L’accueil en question: les localités urbaines et rurales face aux migrations) and Thanatic Ethics: the circulation of bodies in migration with Judith Misrahi Barak (EMMA, Université Paul Valéry 3 Montpellier) and Bidisha Banerjee (EUHK, Hong Kong). He is co-investigator in the programme PACE (the politics of migration and asylum crisis in Europe).

Relevant Publications

Lacroix, T. (2021) Migration-related city networks: a global overview (external link) . Local Government Studies, 48 (6), pp.1027-1047, ⟨10.1080/03003930.2021.1938553⟩ (external link) . 

Lacroix, T. (2022) The transnational state and migration: Reach, flows and Policies (external link) . Political Geography, 2022, 94, ⟨10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102571⟩ (external link) .

Lacroix, T. and Desille, A., (Eds.) (2018) International Migrations and Local Governance. A Global Perspective. (external link)  Basingstoke, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.243, 2018.

Lacroix, T. and Spencer, S. (Eds.) (2022) City networks and the multi‐level governance of migration. Global Networks (external link) , 2022, Global Networks, 22(3), pp.349-362. ⟨10.1111/glob.12381⟩.