What makes a place a sanctuary city?

Define a megacity. How is it different from a city? Where are most megacities located (geographicallY).

 

1. What makes a place a sanctuary city?

The so-called sanctuary cities are currently the main source of opposition to federal anti-immigrant policies in the United States. The sanctuary category brings together a set of laws, policies and informal practices of a different nature, with varied political genesis and with different degrees of insurgency. In the United States, the emergence of sanctuary cities took hold in the eighties, in response to the refusal of the federal government to grant asylum to refugees arriving from various countries in America, especially from the center, which were politically unstable during The time.

In itself, a sanctuary city is one that, in a way, refrains from complying with some federal policies, specifically immigration, with the purpose of providing stability to immigrants.

Based on this, the main characteristics for a city to be considered a sanctuary are:

• Search for innovative strategies or solutions to exclusive national policies with immigrants. The strategies are peaceful and creative. An example can be cited as the case of an evangelical church in The Hague, Holland, which lasted 97 days celebrating a religious service non-stop, with the purpose of protecting an Armenian refugee family, since the policies of that country prevent the police from I entered a temple during the celebration of the cult, and in this way the government was pressured and allowed asylum to the family and 630 families who had previously been refused asylum.

• These cities are intended to accommodate refugees and undocumented immigrants in the local context.

• They generally do not follow all the laws that have to do with immigration.

• They make decisions based on their local realities, which means that they do not coincide with the rest of the country or national government on the immigration issue.

In other words, sanctuary cities are characterized by protecting the millions of undocumented immigrants who live and work in them. For this they declare themselves "disobedient" to certain federal laws. This for the American case, being the most prominent sanctuary cities: Chicago, IL, San Jose, CA, New York City, NY, San Francisco, CA, Washington, DC.

However, the mechanisms and origins of sanctuary cities are not the same everywhere, for example in the United Kingdom, they arose in response to the arrival of asylum seekers. In this case, the relationship with the government is collaborative and the main objective was to build an inclusive discourse at the local level. In the case of continental Europe, there are many cities that have been welcoming the undocumented for some time and their behavior is pragmatic in terms of the problems. But despite this, as of 2015, several European cities developed reception programs or spaces for refugees neglected by state reception systems. Others ran for "refuge cities" to denounce the policies of their respective governments and the European Union, in the context of the so-called refugee crisis of 2015.

From this perspective, sanctuary or refuge cities are those that include measures that are directed at groups with migratory disadvantages, and they also have a different relationship with their respective national governments.

2. Define a megacity. How is it different from a city? Where the majority of megacities are located (geographically).

The term "Megacity" is an expression that is used to describe cities with more than a certain number of inhabitants. The term was documented for the first time by the University of Texas in 1904. Apparently clear, the definition has some ambiguity, as different organizations suggest different criteria. A city with more than 10 million inhabitants is the most common definition; however, others include urban areas with only 8 million inhabitants and also those cities with a population density of 2000 inhabitants per square kilometer.

In such a way that it is a term under discussion and seen from different perspectives, but most agree that the number of inhabitants is higher than in traditional cities, between 10 million and more.

The difference between city and megacity is notorious, but certain points must be clarified. The first of them is that a city is considered to be those with a high population density, which is not unanimous, since most of them are believed to have more than 5000 inhabitants and agricultural activities do not predominate, but rather industrial and technological activities. and in terms of its dimensions this may vary.

Now, a metropolis is the central city or capital of a country that is generally where the greatest number of inhabitants reside, which means that it is the city with the greatest development and population.

In this case, the metropolises and cities as a whole to be compared with the megacities:

• Megacities have more than 9 million inhabitants and cities do not.

• In some cases, cities may have a greater territorial extension than megacities.

• Megacities deal with all kinds of environmental problems such as pollution from their different economic and social activities, emitting a concentration unlike cities.

• Megacities have more international attention and renown than cities.

• Megacities are considered large metropolises or urban centers, but metropolises or large cities are not easily considered megacities.

• Megacities due to their large population unfold over territories that are divided by different political entities and cities have clear limits.

• In megacities there is a higher incidence of overcrowding than in cities, which is lower.

• Labor competitiveness and job shortages sometimes affect megacities as opposed to cities where job opportunities may be greater.

• Megacities can be vulnerable to poverty if adequate policies are not managed, while cities, due to their lower population, run less risk.

• Megacities have a high concentration of industries and technologies when they are in developed countries, for their part, cities do not have the same potential.

There are great differences between those Megacities located in developed countries and those that are in developing countries. On the one hand, in developed countries there are conurbanization controlled by the extension of infrastructures over territories that are added in an orderly fashion; while in megacities located in developing countries, conurbanization is achieved through irregular settlements, which lack planning and infrastructure.

Most megacities are located in Asia, the most populated in the world being Tokyo with 37.39 million inhabitants, followed by New Delhi, with 30.29 million, and Shanghai with 27.05 million. The fourth place is for São Paulo with 22.04 million people.

That the three most populated cities in the world are Asian is no coincidence. Well, on this continent are the most populated such as Dhaka with 21 million, Beijing 20.46 million, Mumbai (Bombay) 20.41 million, Kinki MMA (Osaka) 19.16 million and Karachi with 16.09 million inhabitants, all them with 20 million people.

America can be considered the second continent with the most megacities, leading São Paulo, followed by Mexico City with 21.78 million, New York-Newark 18.8 million, Buenos Aires 15.15 million, Rio de Janeiro 13.45 million and Los Angeles -Long Beach-Santa Ana 12.44 million inhabitants.

The European megacities do not accumulate as much population volume as the Asian ones and there are only four cities with more than ten million inhabitants. The first to appear is Istanbul, with 15.19 million, and then Moskva, Moscow with 12.53 million and finally Paris, which has 11.01 million people.

In this sense, the places with the main megacities are Asia, America and Europe and each of them exceeds 10 million people.