ABSTRACT
Immigration is widely perceived to be a national or international phenomenon and thus immigration policies are assumed to be the responsibility of national or international actors. Among the many policy realms assigned to local governments, immigration is not generally included. Yet the effects of immigrants, both positive and negative and real and perceived, are on the minds of many local government leaders. And the experience of immigrants, whether they are excluded from or included as part of communities, is largely a function of local policies. Some who study immigration have gone so far as to assert that, contrary to popular perceptions and formal legal responsibilities, “ultimate political control over unwanted migration lies at the municipal, not the national, level.”1
