Voices of migrants: from cross talks and exchange of narratives to policies for migrants

Abstract                          

Migrants have been generally passive occupants of the social science studies of migration. They have been talked about and narrated about, a narrative of migration by others. To hear the voices of migrants as they narrate their stories of migration and experiences at destination has been one of the most important objectives of the OPPORTUNITIES project. Its premise was ‘hearing’ the stories of migrants as narrated by them; in order to arrive at a set of action points and policies. To achieve this the OPPORTUNITIES used the Cross Talk (CT) methodology which is imbedded in Participatory Action research. This paper provides an introduction to the CT in order to establish the groundwork for a fair dialogue which uses migrant stories for ‘representative storytelling’ (as stories read by others) as a starting point for conversation. ‘Representative storytelling’ forms the basis for empathy and getting into the shoes of another person, in the hope of enabling mutual understanding. Following extensive preparatory interactions with migrants to gather their stories the OPPORTUNITIES’ partner institutions organised CT events in their countries (Ghana, Mauritania, and Senegal in Africa; and Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Romania in Europe) bringing together migrants, stakeholders from civil society, national and international institutions as well as members of the public. The stories of migrants irrespective of their origins and destinations (Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal and Romania were both origins and destinations) were full of references to sacrifices and hardships to meet a dream, that whether fulfilled or not, considered migration as a worthwhile undertaking. What migrants go through to get to their ‘destination,’ geographically and metaphorically, is not commonly acknowledged or indeed known within the host community, because there is little space for migrants’ ‘voices’ when it comes to their journeys and experiences while trying to build a new life in a different culture and often hostile and unwelcoming social environment. CT events and stories of migrants revealed the remarkable similarities of migrants’ view with regard to their circumstances, their solutions and policy recommendations, despite the cultural and social diversity of migrants, their origins and destinations. There were also important gaps between the experience of migrants and the public perception of their lives. Migrants also shared in the experience of the marginalised non-migrants, people with disability, at destination that mirrored migrants experience of victimhood, vulnerability, and resilience in the face of adversity. Such shared experiences should be a foundation for solidarity and cooperation between marginalised local groups and migrants Some of the main issues which were covered by migrants’ stories were: reasons for migration, the journey of migration, arriving/settling down at destination and integration, governance and policing of migration, trafficking and smuggling of potential and actual migrants, human rights of regular and irregular migrants. Some of the basic rights migrants demanded were access to 5 the labour market, health services and education for themselves and their families. All participants at the Cross Talk events agreed that the granting of such rights and their activation would enhance the social and economic integration process of migrants bearing in mind that integration has been an important objective of host countries and a most desirable outcome for migrants and their host society. In the dialogue about integration, migrants did not view it as only their responsibility but argued that host society should also try to understand and accommodate migrants’ aspirations and cultures. In our view integration should not be a one-way street which migrants enter. It is best to regard integration as an open ended and dynamic process that requires continuous negotiations and dialogue between migrants and host societies. The dynamism of integration is not just about the relationship between newcomers and host society, but is a feature of relationship between different cultures and norms within a host society, which continuously negotiates integration of different cultures based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.

Keywords

Narrative of migration, Cross Talk methodology, Participatory Action Research, Representative Story Telling, Migration policies.

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