Policy implementation in Diversity Governance. Do We Underestimate City Enforcement Officers?

the last two years, the municipality of Rotterdam published two policy documents on diversity governance aimed at fighting racism and discrimination and creating an equal and livable city. The municipality discusses different policy objectives in these documents and mentions the role of city enforcement officers (handhavers) (CEOs) in the implementation of the policies. However, CEOs do not directly engage with the policy objectives, which could be explained by the degree of policy alienation experienced. This research uses the literature on policy implementation and policy alienation. Since the policy implementation literature does not elaborate on the different consequences certain factors have on the outcomes and the policy alienation literature lacks to explain what factors influence the degree of alienation among implementers, this research tries to fill the gaps by connecting the frameworks. This is done by researching if and how the factors of the policy implementation process influence the degree of alienation experienced by CEOs, with the following research question: ‘How are the diversity policies of Rotterdam implemented by city enforcement officers, and how can the role of policy alienation in the implementation process be explained?’ This single case study was conducted within cluster city enforcement Rotterdam Noord. This department of the organization employs 75 CEOs and 16 of them participated in the study through interviews. During the interviews, sensitivity for diversity, prejudices and vulnerable groups were discussed. The findings show that the objectives are implemented in different ways. The CEOs implement the objectives either according to their own ideas or they do not implement the objectives in their daily operations because they do not know how. In this implementation, CEOs demonstrated to experience two types of policy alienation. Most of them feel like they do not have the information and knowledge to implement the objectives and create value in the fight against racism and discrimination and they tend to simplify the policy issues to make sense of it. The research demonstrates that the degree of alienation is mainly influenced by the individual norms and attitudes of the CEOs. Having answered the key question, this research provides recommendations for cluster city enforcement to improve the implementation process, which will add to generating more equality and less discrimination in Rotterdam. The creation of a platform to share diversity related work stories and discuss values, norms, attitudes, and perceptions with a kick-off workshop guided by an expert for all CEOs is recommend. Also, it is recommended to organize information sessions about diversity related topics, such as a non-Dutch cultural holiday, a session about labor migrants in Rotterdam, or about refugees and housing in the city.