Policy learning in local services for migrants in small localities and big cities. Do we need new analytical and policy tools?

This article aims to understand if the size of municipalities impacts policy learning processes in the field of migrant integration, particularly regarding solutions to foster access to local services. Specifically, I try to understand the extent to which exogenous learning, i.e. transferring knowledge from elsewhere, is affected by municipal size. With this aim, I compare the setting up of one-stop shops for migrants in four Italian localities and show how municipal size impacts policy learning processes. First, I illustrate how the marginality of small municipalities within translocal networks hampers knowledge transfer, while emphasising that this is not an inescapable trap but rather a matter of policy and institutional planning. Second, I highlight that the simultaneous emergence of similar intervention models in the four localities suggests that knowledge transfer may occur tacitly and thus elude the traditional analytical tools commonly employed in the study of policy learning.