Governing Migration through Multi‐Level Governance? City Networks in Europe and the United States

City networks (CNs) are often enthusiastically regarded as key actors in processes of Europeanization and multi‐level governance (MLG) policy‐making in Europe and beyond. However, systematic research on highly contentious issues like migration is still scarce. Building on an understanding of MLG as a specific mode or instance of policy‐making, in this article I seek to understand why and how CNs engage in MLG‐like policy‐making on a typical issue of state sovereignty. I apply the causal process‐tracing method to analyse the genesis and policy actions undertaken in the last two decades by two migration CNs in different multi‐level political settings: the Eurocities Working Group on Migration and Integration (WGM&I) in the EU and Welcoming America (WA) in the US. The results show that, notwithstanding the differences in the institutional settings, in both contexts instances of MLG policy‐making have taken place in the shadow of the will of the national governments, which remain fundamental gate‐keepers even in the EU supranational polity, where the European Commission has been particularly active in supporting migration CNs' initiatives.