Indeed, with few exceptions around the world, cities and regions facilitate access  to  rights, benefits and services for migrants. The close proximity of local and regional authorities (LRAs) to their constituencies – their direct experience in implementing policy, their potential to initiate multi-stakeholder dialogue and participatory decision-making, as well as the range of skills that they have often developed in spatial development planning – make them important and some would argue lead  actors” on the stage of global migration.

Despite LRAs’ role at the forefront in addressing migration’s challenges and opportunities, limited attention is dedicated to analyzing their insights, inroads, obstacles and the areas requiring additional (national and other) support.

Further, given the conspicuous absence of migration considerations in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when these were formulated back at the turn of the Century, and as the United Nations General Assembly’s second High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development looks to assess migration’s implications within the post 2015 development framework, part of this discussion must involve an in‐depth look into the role of local and regional government.