2024-2025 Theme: Ecology The Media + Migration Lab constantly works to refine our social and political understanding of migration, which involves maintaining unwavering attention to the continued global conflicts that force the migration of millions of people around the world. The conflict in Gaza, and now Lebanon, is in its fourteenth month, and the genocide …
Alex Rivera provides a poignant commentary on labor, ecology, racial capitalism, and imperial infrastructure in his futuristic, science fiction film Sleep Dealer. The film is set in a dystopian future of North America where Mexican water rights are in the control of multinational corporations and the border between the United States and Mexico is completely …
Directed and produced by Jumana Manna, Foragers incorporates documentary, fiction, and archival footage to display the impact of Zionist migration to, and occupation of, Palestine. The film centers around Palestinians who risk heavy fines and imprisonment for violating Israeli foraging restrictions, and connects these stories to broader themes of alienation, community, and political economy. Both …
Sinha Fellow 2024-25 Congratulations to Maggie Meyer, MA in Media Studies student at The New School, who has been awarded the 2024-25 Bishwanath and Sandhya Sinha Memorial Fellowship! We look forward to the work she will be doing during her fellowship year. Maggie Meyer is a creative and scholar who is passionate about the intersection …
By Chase Louden “The elusiveness of ‘Home’ has characterized Black existence in the United States” —Jacqueline Patterson, “Displaced on Repeat: Black Americans and Climate Forced Migration,” July 12, 2023 Climate Migration within the United States “That storm took the stairs!” Patrina Myers exclaimed, realizing Hurricane Nicole had swept away the staircase of a beachside pavilion …
Applications are open to continuing M.A. students in Media Studies for this research fellowship in the amount of $5,100 for the academic year 2024-25. Application Due Date: July 1, 2024 The annual Bishwanath and Sandhya Sinha Memorial Endowed Fellowship at the School of Media Studies in The New School is a year-long funded research assistantship in …
New Introductory Essays for Concepts This Spring, we launched a series of 17 short essays by Prof Sumita S. Chakravarty and Sinha Memorial Research Fellow Johann Yamin, each introducing a keyword on our new “Concepts” page on the Migration Mapping project. This is part of the Migration Mapping project’s broader aims to arrive at key …
With 2023 coming to a close, we reflect on international developments in media and migration, also taking stock of the continued growth of the Media+Migration Lab (M2Lab) and its foundational project, Migration Mapping. Header image: Still from Amy Mullenex’s M2Lab multimedia project, Tracing Crisis in Ukraine: On War, Digital Media, and Forced Migration in Southeastern …
New look for Migration Mapping Migration Mapping was officially launched in 2016, though if one were to explore its archived versions on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, one would find multiple iterations of the project emerging since 2015, transforming over time with slight variations to its appearance through the work of volunteers, student researchers, and …
The Night Fisherman (2020) by Far Few Giants is a narrative-driven adventure game. As a short, free game that may be played through in about 10 minutes, it is a micro-fiction that is experienced like a filmic vignette. In an atmospheric setting that is awash in a violet color palette, the player assumes the role …
Described as a “dystopian document thriller,” Papers, Please is a 2013 video game designed by Lucas Pope and published by 3090 across several platforms. Playing as an immigration inspector, the game unfolds through increasingly bureaucratic duties of processing paperwork at the border of fictional Artstotzka. Sorting through passports, immigration documents, and personal information, the player …
Tracing Crisis in Ukraine: On War, Digital Media, and Forced Migration in Southeastern Europe by Amy Mullenex This multimedia project documents how digital media (and digital discourses) about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine are complicated by lived experiences of forced migration in Southeastern Europe. Multimedia artworks about a Jewish family’s history in the region today …
In November 2019, voices from the spheres of architecture, design, political science, cybernetics, sociology, urbanism, and curatorial practice assembled in Riga. Standing alongside a delegation of over four hundred from, and fresh to, the Latvian capital, Architecture of Migration—the first international conference of its kind—sought to open a fissure within which architecture in its broadest …
Despite a recent surge of interest in how conflict, violence, and memory interact with the built environment, the contemporary crisis in the Mediterranean has attracted little attention from the architectural community.1 But the issues raised by irregular migration (the legal definition of what is happening in the Mediterranean) have implications for how we frame Europe …
“Migrating Architectures” art and research project analyses the process of space formation as a transformation of spatial conceptions from both the countries of origin and destination. Read More…
This defiant attitude was how Martin Barry, Chairman of reSITE, opened their 2016 Conference in Prague three weeks ago. Entitled “Cities in Migration,” the conference took place against a background of an almost uncountable number of challenging political issues related to migration. In Europe, the unfolding Syrian refugee crisis has strained both political and race …
Art doesn’t just reflect the world — it engages with it. Some 10 million to 15 million undocumented immigrants currently live in the United States, and their presence is the subject of fierce debate. So for the second installment of our series T Agitprop, we asked 13contemporary artists — Alfredo Jaar, Raúl de Nieves and …
Explore the lasting cultural, political, and societal impact of the Great Migration through the life and work of artist Jacob Lawrence. Browse all 60 panels from The Migration Series and delve into Jacob Lawrence’s art and life through photographs, poetry, music, and the artist’s own first hand accounts. Hear stories that show the Great Migration’s …
Entitled 2016, the year it was made, this painting depicts a golden boat sinking below the surface of the ocean. The composition’s central subject is a chaotic tumble of black, white, gold and flesh-toned colours, suggesting the boat’s inhabitants are spilling over its edges into the water. To create the effect of submersion, the artist …
At a time when the borders between lands are continually being disputed, what does it mean to move across countries, to change nationalities and to settle in a new place? Some of us migrate by choice, others are forced to flee for our own safety. Visitors from across the world come to Tate Modern to …
Using archeological, genetic, and climate data, scientists have pieced together an outline of the human odyssey—the journey that took our species from Africa to all corners of the globe. Experience this 200,000-year migration using an interactive human migration map. Read More…
Historic population and cropland data illustrate the relationship between the spread of human civilization and agriculture on Earth between 10,000 BCE and 2,000 CE. Read More…
This article assesses the strategies of anti-immigration actors on social media and the discursive construction of immigrants and refugees in user interaction on Facebook. It emphasizes the particular role of emotions in racist discourse and analyses how an open Facebook group generates and circulates anti-immigration and racist sentiments to a large audience. By analysing the …
Since the 2016 election, Congress has woken up to the consequences of allowing social media companies to hold vast stores of information about hundreds of millions of users and use it for their own purposes. But it continues to close its eyes to the dangers of allowing the Department of Homeland Security to tap into …
(NewsNation Now) — A new report claims social media platforms such as Facebook are encouraging illegal migrant smuggling and promoting hatred toward migrants, further turning up the heat on the social media giant in the wake of a company whistleblower coming forward this week. The report, from Border Report, a Nexstar website that reports on issues …
Human trafficking routes, modes of transit, prices, and even discounts freely promoted on Facebook sites, report finds. McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, like Facebook, encourage illegal migration to the United States as well as promote and illicit hatred toward migrants, cybersecurity and migration experts who are calling on …
Washington CNN — The Department of Homeland Security plans to begin requesting social media information on applications for immigration benefits and foreign travel to the US, an expansion of data collection already taking place. Some foreign travelers to the US, as well as applicants for immigration benefits, will be asked to list their social …
Social media has become integrated into our everyday lives as a site for friendships, entertainment, business, politics, and activism. Today, at least one in three people globally is on a social media platform. This has practical implications for migrants and refugees, offering empowering opportunities for representation but also surveillance concerns. In addition, this shift has …
For migrants traveling north to the U.S.-Mexico border from countries like Chile and Brazil, the trip has become virtually impossible without two things — a smuggler and social media. Read More…
f you are one of the 3.484 billion people who use social media and you are seeking an immigration benefit, you’ll want to think twice before posting. Since September 2019, visa applicants abroad have been required to disclose their social media profiles, past email addresses, and phone numbers. U.S. Consular Officers are required to review …
Personal information gleaned from social media posts has been used to target dissent and subject religious and ethnic minorities to enhanced vetting and surveillance. Read More…
Engaging audiences in questions of identity, belonging and sharing our world, A British Museum Spotlight Loan Crossings: community and refuge will tour the Lampedusa cross together with poignant boat artwork around the UK for the first time. Made from the remnants of a refugee boat wrecked near the Italian island of Lampedusa, the cross …
What does it mean to be displaced from culture and home? What are the historical contexts for understanding our contemporary moment? How does an artist’s work and process embody and engage the narratives of displacement and belonging? Crossing Lines, Constructing Home investigates two parallel ideas: national, political, and cultural conceptions of boundaries and borders; and …
Migration—the movement of people and cultures—is a story of who we are and how we got here over time. Millions of people move for myriad reasons, from fleeing war and religious persecution to seeking better education or financial security. The United Nations estimates that one out of every seven people in the world is an …
100 Images of Migration is the exhibition with which we launched the Migration Museum Project in 2013. The product of a competition run with the Guardian newspaper – people were asked to submit images that were, for them, resonant of migration – it collected images provided by professional and amateur photographers alike, each of which …
Migration Museum Lewisham Shopping Centre London SE13 7HB Until 13 February 2022 Wednesday–Sunday, 11am–5.30pm (5pm close on Sunday) Admission: Free – advance booking not required Departures is an immersive exhibition at the Migration Museum in London exploring 400 years of emigration from Britain from the Mayflower to the present day through personal narratives, contemporary art and …
The NHS is close to all of our hearts – now more than ever. From the very beginning, people have come to Britain from all over the world to make this grand vision for a better society a reality. The NHS would not have become the beloved institution it is today without its international workers. …
Open the door, put down your suitcase, take off your coat, let the outside world fade away. This is where it begins. A room that you can start to call a home. A room to breathe. Room to Breathe is an immersive exhibition inviting you to discover stories from generations of new arrivals to Britain. Journey …
This interactive exhibition, organized in conjunction with Emigration–Immigration–Migration, will grow over time, highlighting YOUR stories through writing, audio and photographs. In addition, we will feature Immigration Journeys: Old and New, a series of videos sponsored by the Allegheny County Library Association and produced at the Whitehall Public Library, in which long-term residents and newly arrived …
A sheriff in Texas is accused of regularly ordering his deputies to seize cash and vehicles from undocumented immigrants during traffic stops, even if they were not stopped for an alleged crime. Read More…
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make the United States a welcoming place for immigrants, but his plans to dismantle the Trump administration’s barriers to immigration could leave him in a quandary, especially as a new migration surge could be looming. Read More…
MEXICO CITY — President Trump didn’t force Mexico to pay for a border wall, but his bully tactics turned the country into a formidable barrier to the destitute Central Americans who travel north toward the U.S. border in mass migration events known as caravans. Read More…
The number of migrants that U.S. border agents took into custody rose to a 13-month high in September, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures published Wednesday that belie President Trump’s attempts to tout his enforcement record on the campaign trail. Read More…
Even as the world focuses on a new coronavirus variant, Francis is embarking on a trip that incorporates longstanding priorities like opening borders and welcoming the destitute. Read More…
The images at the Belarus-Poland border look familiar, but this emergency has little in common with previous waves of people from Syria, Myanmar and Afghanistan. Read More…
A judge had ordered the Biden administration to restart the Trump-era program, but doing so required cooperation from Mexico, which had been reluctant. Read More…
Hundreds of migrants, marooned in freezing weather on the Belarus side of the Poland-Belarus border, tried to rush into Poland. Polish border forces used water cannons and tear gas to drive them back. Read More…
Migrants have been placed in a warehouse along the Belarus-Poland border, after spending weeks camped out in fields. Between 2,000 and 4,000 migrants are at the border, many of them from Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Read More…
Western leaders have accused Belarus’s president of manufacturing a migrant crisis along the E.U.’s eastern border. Several people have already died of exposure. Aid workers worry the death toll will increase as winter sets in. Read More…
Labor shortages in the United States have led to renewed calls to increase immigration to enlarge the work force. (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa shortage.) “Even if it’s just temporary workers, immigration is a really, really effective tool to make sure you have people in open jobs who can produce,” Laura Collins, director of …
Border crossings declined for the third consecutive month in October, but thousands of Haitians and other migrants were waiting in Mexico, hoping to head north. Read More…
President Biden took office pledging to rescind the Trump administration’s deliberately harsh policies toward migrants who show up at America’s doorstep. But as Mr. Biden’s first year in office draws to a close, his administration continues to lean heavily on one of those policies: Title 42, an emergency public health order that allows the government …
Last year Vladimir V. Putin helped save Aleksandr G. Lukashenko’s Belarusian regime. But Russia now has an ever-more-erratic ally and risks entanglement in a dangerous crisis. Read More…
Europe has long paid other nations to keep refugees away from its borders. Now, Belarus wants something, too, and has brought migrants right to Europe’s door to get it. Read More…
The United States must reject the politics of cruelty and chart a new course on migration policy that is cooperative, compassionate, and pragmatic. Read More…
The figures reflect a jump from 2010, when the global number was at 221 million, and currently international migrants – defined as anyone who changes their “country of usual residence” – make up 3.5 per cent of the global population, compared to 2.8 per cent in the year 2000, according to the latest figures. Read …
The world is on the move as never before. Migrants, defined as people living outside their country of birth whether for work, to follow a family member, study or escape adversity, numbered more than 250 million in 2017. That was 3.4% of the global population, an increase from 2.8% in 2000. Half were living in …
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. may face violence and murder in their home countries. What happens when they are forced to return? Read More…
Pitou remembers someone yelling, “Go, go!” Three hundred young men, including him, began sprinting toward the fence. The first barrier was short. The second was three times taller. Pitou was exhausted by the time he got to the top. The barbed wire tore through his clothes, and his skin. Read More…
Just two months from now, the Israeli government says it will begin indefinitely imprisoning asylum seekers who refuse deportation. IRIN Middle East Editor Annie Slemrod explores what this means for the tens of thousands of people now facing an uncertain future. Read More…
The town of Cúcuta offers few jobs, little shelter and much crime, but for Venezuelan migrants it’s better than home. Read More…
he boy looked tentative as he took his seat at the sixth-grade graduation. Bone-thin with thick glasses, Jose turned to look for his parents in the auditorium. Read More…
One August morning nearly two decades ago, my mother woke me and put me in a cab. She handed me a jacket. “Baka malamig doon” were among the few words she said. (“It might be cold there.”) When I arrived at the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport with her, my aunt and a family friend, …
The 6-year-old girl who was pleading with Border Patrol officials for her mother, begging for her aunt — on the excruciating audio published by ProPublica that helped galvanize opposition to family separations — had set out just weeks before from this village in the rolling foothills of western El Salvador, leaving behind her grandmother and …
“Unaccompanied” is an audio-visual story of young immigrants in the Washington, D.C. area who were among the thousands of children seeking refuge from the violence of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala created by photographer Oliver Contreras and CARECEN, the Central American Resource Center. Following President Obama’s statement about a humanitarian crisis on the border in …
Fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Nancy and her two children sought asylum in the United States. Instead, they found themselves stuck in a border camp in Matamoros, Mexico — and the U.S. immigration system. Over the course of a year, in texts, voicemails and other dispatches from Matamoros, Nancy slowly unspooled her harrowing story …
A 5-year-old boy named José and his father fled the violence in Honduras and headed to the United States. They were separated at the border. What has happened to them in the weeks since? Read More…
The Trump administration’s recent border policy is, in part, a response to the large numbers of migrants who have been making the journey to the United States from Central America. For many, staying in their native countries is no longer an option. Read More…
The story of what happened when federal agents showed up in a small town that had overwhelmingly voted for President Trump, and his campaign rhetoric became a reality. Read more…
How many times in your life have you been asked, “Where are you from?” If you’re a person of color living in the United States, odds are that your answer is complex — it’s not just about a place on a map, but also family, history, traditions, work, and how you express yourself. Read More…
Over the past year, a record 2,000 migrants from Africa have drowned trying to reach Spain. Many of these migrants — mostly from Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar — make the journey in rickety vessels, not much bigger than canoes, that often don’t stand up to strong currents. Read More…
In August, Abrahm Lustgarten, who reports on climate, watched fires burn just 12 miles from his home in Marin County, Calif. For two years, he had been studying the impact of the changing climate on global migration and recently turned some of his attention to the domestic situation. Suddenly, with fires raging so close to …
“Mr. Moore, a staff photographer for Getty Images, now has perhaps the most comprehensive body of work of any news photographer covering immigration. His images — his book “Undocumented” was published by Powerhouse and Getty Images — are being highlighted in two projections at the Visa pour l’image festival in Perpignan, France.” Quote retrieved from …
Below is a gathered list of novels from the 2020s that touch upon themes of migration. We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez 2020 Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 2020 The Arsonists’ City by Hala Alyan 2020 What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad 2021 Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on …
Below is a gathered list of novels from the 2010s that touch upon themes of migration. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda 2010 Girls in Translation by Jean Kwok 2010 The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom 2010 The Free World by David Bezmozgis 2011 Open City by Teju Cole 2011 Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix …
Below is a gathered list of novels from the 2000s that touch upon themes of migration. The Vision of Emma Blau by Ursula Hegi 2000 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber 2003 Rodzina by Karen Cushman 2003 The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich 2003 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 …
Below is a gathered list of novels from the 1990s that touch upon themes of migration. Ruby by Rosa Guy 1991 The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur 1991 Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia 1992 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler 1993 Reef by Romesh Gunesekera 1995 When Fox is …
January 2021 Low Covid testing rates in western Sydney blamed on failure to get message to migrant communities The Guardian Migrant Caravan, Now in Guatemala, Tests Regional Resolve to Control Migration The New York Times Biden to propose overhaul of immigration laws on first day of office Washington Post
A gently emotional story about a group of asylum seekers awaiting for their results on a fictional remote Scottish island. Among them is Omar, a young Syrian musician burdened by the weight of his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland. By Director Ben Shamrock, it received many accolades, including …
After escaping from Syria in 2018, the English literature teacher Rawan has found his new home in Oxford, UK. In this short movie, he takes us around the city, reflecting on the physical and emotional journey that brought him there. “On my second day in Oxford,” he explains “I took a walk in the city …
A self-shot, intimate and visceral documentary, BAFTA-award-winning For Sama is a journey through motherhood during the bombings of the Syrian Civil War. Waad al-Kateab’s first feature documentary is a story of love, resilience and hope, but framed by suffering and harsh dilemmas.
This very poetic film offers an unedited insight into the hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers captivated offshore by the Australian Federal Government on Manus Island. Thanks to the starkness of its black and white shots, this multi-award-winning documentary focuses very intimately on the people, so that we can hear their stories directly.
Directed by Ric Burns, The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first legislation that prevented an entire ethnic group from migrating to the U.S. Steeplechase’s documentary “The Chinese Exclusion Act” tells the story within the context of 19th century Chinese immigration to America. The film aired on PBS, and the producers explain that the Chinese Exclusion …
Directed by Theo Rigby, Waking Dream weaves together the stories of six undocumented young people as they sit in limbo between deportation and a path to citizenship. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) has provided nearly 800,000 undocumented young people a chance to work legally, go to college, start businesses, and pursue the “American Dream.” …
Following the arduous journey of the Syrian-Kurdish Nabi family from Aleppo to Germany, this movie manages to vividly depict the struggles of one three-generation family and, at the same time, to pull us into one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time.
At the end of 2018, the report said, 1.1 million of the world’s refugees were from Myanmar, which saw a violent government crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority. Drawing on secret footage filmed by a network of citizen activists, this documentary tells the story of an orchestrated campaign against Rohingya Muslims in majority-Buddhist Myanmar going …
Directed by Matthew Heineman, this film tells a story of brave citizen journalists who face the realities of life undercover, in exile and on the run to stand against the violence that is taking place in the city of Raqqa in Syria. This film has used the camera as a powerful weapon to show the …
Directed by Ai Weiwei, Human Flow takes the viewer across the globe through 23 countries. It highlights urgent stories of victims of the various refugee crisis and shows the plight of those looking for a safe space to live in. For Ai Weiwei, “the purpose of (the documentary) is to show it to people of …
In Exodus, FRONTLINE told the epic, first-hand stories of refugees and migrants fleeing countries including Syria, Afghanistan and The Gambia, who made dangerous journeys across 26 countries in search of safety and a better life. The initial two-hour special relied on camera and smartphone footage filmed by refugees and migrants themselves — from inside a …
Another 2.3 million refugees, according to the report, are from South Sudan — where a brutal civil war has sparked a man-made hunger crisis and driven millions of people from their homes. In this immersive, 360-degree documentary from FRONTLINE and the Brown Institute, meet people who were forced to abandon their farmlands and villages to …
Some 6.7 million people — more than a quarter of the global refugee population — have fled brutal violence in Syria, the report said. This documentary chronicles the stories of some of the youngest. Filmed over three years, it follows four Syrian children from their struggle to survive the siege of Aleppo by President Bashar …
Directed by Tonislav Hristov, this film follows Ivan, the local postman in a quiet Bulgarian community on the Turkish border, as he decides to run for mayor. He then campaigns to bring the aging village to life by welcoming refugees. Some in the community support Ivan, while others resist his campaign. The film highlights the …
Directed by Guido Hendrikx, Stranger in Paradise is a mixture of fiction and documentary that depicts an actor in a classroom of a detention center telling refugees about what Europeans think of them. It reflects on the powerful relation between the Europeans and refugees in a candid manner and highlights the emotion most people feel …
Directed by Daphne Matziaraki, 4.1 Miles is a story about a Hellenic coast guard captain on a small Greek island who suddenly becomes in charge of saving thousands of refugees from drowning during the European migration crisis gives the viewers hope for humanity. The film was a winner of the David L. Wolper Student …
MINARI by Lee Isaac Chung, USA 2020: A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home. (Taken from Youtube)
Entanglements: A Conversation with Mediamaker Ina Adele Ray – conducted by Sumita S. Chakravarty and Guillermina Zabala Suárez In recent months, we have become painfully aware of racial attacks against Asian Americans in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, and elsewhere in the U.S. Some have attributed the hatred to fears stoked by the COVID-19 virus, …
Pandemic Media and Emergent Infrastructures On April 16, 2021 Professor Sumita Chakravarty, along with graduate students Isabel Munson, Rachel Pincus, Nick Travaglini, and Guillermina Zabala, held a workshop on the topic of Pandemic Media and Emergent Infrastructures as part of The New School’s online events. Each student presented a different aspect of this theme and …
Welcome to Bihac!: A Conversation with Amir Husak Interview conducted by Guillermina Zabala Suárez and Sumita S. Chakravarty. Photography by Amir Husak. “What I have observed first-hand could be called a border-industry complex, with IOM (International Organization for Migration), EU authorities, border police, smugglers, local and federal politicians all implicated in a severe humanitarian crisis …
Kamala Harris and the Immigrant Story by Sumita S. Chakravarty Dr. Chakravarty, PhD is the founder of the Migration Mapping initiative and is currently working on a book titled Unsettled States: Towards a Media History of Migration. By hiding a big part of your ethnicity, heritage, religion—you are practicing bigotry and bias, in a new …
WWE opens a visual dialogue on the impact of borders on individuals and communities. The twelve participating artists are drawn from different regional traditions and challenge our perceptions of national identities, envisioning utopian possibilities for understanding the place of borders, their proliferation and seeming obsolescence, in contemporary society. The exhibiting artists reveal their deep interest …
