A bi-monthly roundup of activities and events by E-MINDFUL staff and contributors
MOVING STORIES
The Stone Guest:
migration policies and politics Issue #6
The Stone Guest: migration policies and politics
“The Stone Guest” is a metaphorical expression, indicating an impending but invisible presence, somehow unexpected, almost disturbing.
When discussing factors that influence attitudes towards migrants, the impact of migration policies and politics seems to be regarded as a Stone Guest, a presence that everyone knows but no-one names. Research on attitudes, in fact, tends to give priority to exploring individual drivers, such as values and beliefs or socioeconomic, cultural and demographic factors. Yet, migration policies and politics play a critical role in shaping the environment where attitudes get rooted and develop. In some international commitments, they are described as the ‘conducive conditions that enable all migrants to enrich our societies through their human, economic and social capacities’ (Preamble, Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, 2018).
Photo of the painting opera by Marco Metto "Il Convitato di Pietra" 2006
71X91 Acrylic on wood.
From theory to practice: the E-MINDFUL co-creation process
Mr. Antonio Dante Santangelo is professor of Semiotics and Semiotics of Digital Cultures at the University of Turin. As a member of the Italian National Multidisciplinary Creative Group for the E-MINDFUL project, he conducted research on the narratives about migration in the Italian context.
To investigate the complex factors influencing attitudes towards migrants, the E-MINDFUL project intends to design information campaign prototypes about migration and test them. In doing so, the impact assessment will focus on the reactions of the so-called “moveable middle,” that segment of the audience who seems to oscillate between positive and negative attitudes. The intention is to promote migration narratives that go beyond the polarization that the topic often catalyzes, overcoming simplistic messages of us versus them or stereotyping associations such as “migrants-threats-terrorism-invasion”. As the project intends to develop messages and assess their impact at the transnational level, the method adopted in the co-creation process seeks to highlight the similarities and the differences in the way migration and migrants are framed in different contexts and cultures.
E-MINDFUL @ Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), Geneva, 23 November 2022 .the project will be featuring under priority no. 5 “Improving the perception of migration in public opinion through narratives, culture, emotion and rational discourse”. Read more at the following link: https://www.gfmd.org/files/2022-2023_gfmd_summary_thematic_programme_sept_2022.pdf
E-MINDFUL news
E-MINDFUL @ the Foreign Press Association, Milan (Italy), 1 December 2022: De-polarizing migration narratives: the role of journalism. Concept note and agenda of the event here.
E-MINDFUL SUGGESTED VIDEOS
As the project unfolds, we wish to draw your attention on the series of short videos titled “Migration matters” about facts and realities of migration
E-MINDFUL STORIES OF MIGRATION
“E-MINDFUL: Stories of Migration”
We are starting receiving the first contributions and we wish to encourage others to do so. Send us your story of migration, it could be your own experience or of a family member or a friend, or even a conversation you’ve had with a stranger about their migration experience. We are looking for creative ways of expressing these stories, be it in the form of an essay, a poem, a video, a painting, illustration or whatever format sparks your creative flow. We are accepting submissions at info@e-mindful.eu.To apply, please send us an email with theheading “E-MINDFUL Stories of Migration”
Throughout history, the movement of people has enriched culture, enabled widespread knowledge sharing and accelerated human progress. Migration is embedded into our DNA as humans and many of us have a story of migration to tell; from our own life experience, that of our family, or the people who we interact with every day. Here at E-Mindful, we are curating a tapestry of individual stories, which will form part of an online exhibition that will also feed into an exhibition to take place in Vienna later this year to mark International Migration Day.
Disclaimer: This newsletter was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of its authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. The newsletter does not constitute an endorsement by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European University Institute (EUI) of the opinions expressed therein.
