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
Limbo (2020)
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 …
A Road to Oxford (2020)
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 …
For Sama (2019)
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.
Manus (2019)
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.
The Chinese Exclusion Act – PBS (2018)
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 …
Walking Dream Series (2018)
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.” …
Sky and Ground (2018)
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.
Myanmar’s Killing Fields (2018)
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 …
City of Ghosts (2017)
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 …
Human Flow (2017)
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 …
Exodus (2016) & Exodus: The Journey Continues (2017)
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 …
On the Brink of Famine (2016)
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 …
Children of Syria (2016)
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 …
The Good Postman (2016)
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 …
Stranger in paradise (2016)
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 …
4.1 Miles (2016)
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 (2020)
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)
July/August 2021 Newsletter: A Conversation with Ina Adele Ray by Sumita Chakravarty and Guillermina Zabala Suárez
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, …
March/April 2021 Newsletter: Pandemic Media and Emergent Infrastructures by Sumita Chakravarty, Isabel Munson, Rachel Pincus, Nick Travaglini, and Guillermina Zabala
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 …
May/June 2021 Newsletter: A Conversation with Amir Husak by Guillermina Zabala Suárez and Sumita Chakravarty
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 …
January/February 2021 Newsletter: Sumita S. Chakravarty & Guillermina Zabala reflect on Kamala Harris and the immigrant story
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 …
Worlds without Ends: Stories around Borders
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 …
News Articles: 2020
January 2020 Trump Administration To Curb Immigrants From 6 Nations, Including Nigeria – NPR News Supreme Court Allows Trump to Implement Income-Based Restrictions on Immigration – Wall Street Journal Los Angeles church raided in FBI immigration-fraud bust – Fox News
November/December 2020 Newsletter: Interview with Christina Antonakos-Wallace & Corine E.R.’s review on Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
From Here: A Documentary by Christina Antonakos-Wallace Christina Antonakos-Wallace is an American documentary filmmaker whose acclaimed film, From Here (2020), explores what it means to be considered a racial, ethnic, or religious outsider in mainstream society. Moving back and forth between New York and Berlin, the film follows four people who are first or second …
Ramin Samandari: Huddled Masses
The project is a collection of 300 portraits featuring people holding whiteboard placards on which they’ve written details of their ethnic heritage. In the wake of the last presidential election, Samandari was motivated to explore his own experience as an immigrant. “Right from the get-go during the candidacy and post-election, there was a lot of …
Art 21: Border Tuner
Spurred by his Mexican heritage and the growing nationalism in the United States, Lozano-Hemmer embarks on his most ambitious project to date: Border Tuner, an enormous intercom system at the border between El Paso and Juárez that allows participants from both sides to speak and listen to each other via radio-enabled searchlights. At his studio in …
Richard Blanco: How to Love a Country
The Cuban American civil engineer turned writer, Richard Blanco, straddles the many ways a sense of place merges with human emotion to make home and belonging — personal and communal. The most recent — and very resonant — question he’s asked by way of poetry is: how to love a country? Read more…
Near Strangers San Antonio 300
An installation by Proyecto Diáspora. Considering San Antonio’s Tricentennial and Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival as SA’s cultural connector between artists, audiences and the world, Near Strangers San Antonio 300 proposes a site-specific light installation made from copper maps and portraits of San Antonio’s inhabitants. The installation is in fact an electrical circuit that reacts to touch and lights …
Public Secret Society of Conceptual Migrants
Public Secret Society of Conceptual Migrants is an intervention project created by artist Patty Ortiz as part of her continuing performance series Work Won’t Kill You. PSSCM was built around the word migrant, its specific definition and common assumptions. Ortiz proposed to take the historical concept of a secret society and turn it inside out, …
From the Other Side
A 3/9 – channel video installation by Argentinian artist Gabriela Golder. The video installation focuses on the topical issue of migration, zooming in on migrants’ real-life situation and experience of uprootedness. Asked about their stories, they cite political and economic reasons for emigrating to Argentina. Their narratives bring out the underlying processes of cultural transformation …
The Waiting Room: Rethinking Latency After Covid-19
By Neta Alexander Neta Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media at Colgate University, New York. Her first book, Failure (Polity, 2020; co-authored with Arjun Appadurai) studies how Silicon Valley and Wall Street monetize failure and forgetfulness. The following is a brief excerpt from a new essay by Prof. Alexander, to be published …
Media’s Border Logics: Reflecting on Platforms to the World Symposium
By Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Juan Llamas-Rodriguez is assistant professor of critical media studies in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research spans digital media, border studies, infrastructure studies, and Latin American film and television. At the end of January of this year, twenty scholars interested in …
September/October 2020 Newsletter: Juan Llamas-Rodriguez reflects on Platforms to the World & Neta Alexander rethinks Latency After Covid-19
Media’s Border Logics: Reflecting on Platforms to the World Symposium By Juan Llamas-Rodriguez Juan Llamas-Rodriguez is assistant professor of critical media studies in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research spans digital media, border studies, infrastructure studies, and Latin American film and television. At the end of January …
Immigrant Art: A new perspective on the U.S. melting pot
By Guillermina Zabala Guillermina Zabala is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose art examines the intersection between the individual and their social-political-cultural environment. Her works have been exhibited in museums and art galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Texas, Miami, and San Francisco; and internationally in Germany, Latin America and Spain. She is a second …
August 2020 Newsletter: Ishita Tiwary on Migrating Media Technologies & Guillermina Zabala on Immigrant Art
The Suitcase Entrepreneur: Migrating Media Technologies By Ishita Tiwary Ishita Tiwary is a postdoctoral fellow at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. In the summer of 2019, I conducted fieldwork in India and Nepal for my new research project. The project seeks to track the migration of media technologies and video …
The Power of Cartoons in Global Education: An Interview with Christian Clark
Conducted by Sumita S. Chakravarty A former cartoonist and two-time Emmy-award winning writer for the Children’s Television Workshop flagship show, Sesame Street, Christian Clark works for the United Nations where he has more than 25 years of experience in communications, advocacy and public information, leading campaigns for the BBC and the UN in North America, …
Mapping Art in Times of Protest
— by Pamela Vasquez Torres Pamela Vazquez Torres is a Mexican art historian living in the Twin Cities since 2017. She is driven by the potential of art for political action and social change. Most of the store fronts that were boarded up during the Minneapolis uprising are still up and continue to appear in …
July 2020 Newsletter: Christian Clark on Cartoons and Human Rights & Pamela Torres on Protest Art
The Power of Cartoons in Global Education: An Interview with Christian Clark Conducted by Sumita S. Chakravarty A former cartoonist and two-time Emmy-award winning writer for the Children’s Television Workshop flagship show, Sesame Street, Christian Clark works for the United Nations where he has more than 25 years of experience in communications, …
June 2020 Newsletter
Notes about Home . . . in Minnesota by Pamela Vázquez Torres The dignity of a safe home shouldn’t be determined by color of skin or country of birth. The ongoing social movement in Minneapolis, now spread out nationally and internationally, is a reclamation of home. Opposed to corporate media coverage of events, reactions by …
Notes about Home… in Minnesota
by Pamela Vázquez Torres The dignity of a safe home shouldn’t be determined by color of skin or country of birth. The ongoing social movement in Minneapolis, now spread out nationally and internationally, is a reclamation of home. Opposed to corporate media coverage of events, reactions by local artists to the killing of George Floyd …
May 2020 Newsletter
Documenting our Time: The Paradoxes of Belonging by Sumita S. Chakravarty Ideas of home and belonging– long a staple of migration as lived reality and structure of consciousness in that home is often defined in the very act of leaving it– have once again become food for thought during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the …
Documenting our Time: The Paradoxes of Belonging
by Sumita S. Chakravarty Ideas of home and belonging, long a staple of migration as lived reality and structure of consciousness in that home is often defined in the very act of leaving it, have once again become food for thought during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the earliest impacts as institutions started to …
February 2020 Newsletter
The Migration of Fashion, Part 1: The Colonizing Gaze and Counter-Gaze Written by Sandra Mathey García-Rada The Latin American Fashion Summit platform created in 2018 aims to help Latin American fashion brands and designers join the global stage. Through different initiatives that bring together powerful industry figures, the main one being a yearly conference and …
January 2020 Newsletter: The Media, Migration, and Campaign 2020
The next time you read this newsletter, there will have been several votes cast that will give some indication of what issues, policies and ideologies will drive the future direction of politics in America. First, the Iowa caucuses will be held on Tuesday February 7th, followed by the New Hampshire primary on February 11th. These …
News Articles: 2019
January 2019 More Than 100 Migrants Die at Sea in Wreck Off Libya, Survivors Say – The New York Times At Least 52 Dead After Boats Capsize Off Djibouti, U.N. Migration Agency Says – The New York Times Morocco foils 89,000 illegal migration attempts in 2018: interior ministry – Reuters
November 2019 Newsletter: Retooling Heimat by Berkley Wilson & Statelessness and its Vicissitudes by Sofia Silveira-Florek
Retooling Heimat By Berkley Wilson “Heimat is a crucial aspect in German self-perceptions; it represents the fusional anti-Enlightenment thinking in German Romanticism; it is the idealization of the pre-modern within the modern; it unites geographic and imaginary conceptions of space; it is a provincializing, but disalienating, part of German bourgeois culture; it reflects modern German …
Article: Emilie Cheyroux, Immigrant consumption and cultural visibility in documentary films by and about Latinos (2018)
Abstract: “This article analyzes two short documentaries showed at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (Austin, Texas) and the way they discuss the symbolic meaning as well as the implications of consumption for U.S. Latinos at the personal, social, cultural, and economic levels. Shopping to Belong (Irene Sosa, 2007) insists on the performance Latinos put on in order to …
From Penal to “Civil”: A Legacy of Private Prison Policy in a Landscape of Migrant Detention
Sarah Lopez American Quarterly Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 71, Number 1, March 2019 pp. 105-134 10.1353/aq.2019.0005 Abstract: Texas has more migrant detention centers and migrant prisons than any other state in the Union. This essay focuses on the construction and design of migrant detention facilities in Texas since the 1960s in relation to immigration …
Artwork: Artist Cosimo Cavallaro Builds a Wall of Cotija Cheese at the Mexican Border (2020)
From ARTNET.com: Artist Cosimo Cavallaro is helping President Donald Trump build his controversial border wall between the US and Mexico—but his barrier is constructed not from steel and concrete, but from blocks of cotija cheese. “I don’t like walls,” said the immigrant artist in a video promoting the project. “This is a wall that I’m willing to live with. …
Artwork: Rael San Fratello, Teeter-Totter Wall (2019)
From ARTNET.com: “The art project, which has been a media sensation, is the work of architecture studio Rael San Fratello, a partnership between San Jose State interior design faculty member Virginia San Fratello and UC Berkeley architecture professor Ronald Rael, author of the 2017 book Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. Ten years in the making—the duo drew up …
The New Yorker: Mapping the Journeys of Syria’s Artists
The New Yorker featured an article about Syrian disbursement across the Middle east and Europe. The project tracks several Syrians, including a poet and a photographer as they set up life in new lands. Last year, as I began to map where Syrian artists had gone, a sculptor friend of mine who is based in …
Book: Borderwall As Architecture (2017) by Ronald Rael
Ronald Rael, Borderwall As Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2017) From the Publisher: “Through a series of propositions suggesting that the nearly seven hundred miles of wall is an opportunity for economic and social development along the border that encourages its conceptual and physical dismantling, the book …
Database/Community: Syria Cultural Index
Berlin based non-profit CoCulture is working with the Syrian diaspora artistic community to build connections and cohesions to provide creative outlets and structure to a traumatized community in search of social stability in unfamiliar places. More from CoCulture: CoCulture e.V. is a Berlin-based non-profit organization founded by artist and cultural activist Khaled Barakeh in 2017, …
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Exhibit on MAss Migration
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is featuring an exhibit on mass migration by Richard Mosse, a documentary photographer from Ireland. The exhibit runs from October 26, 2019 – Feb. 17, 2020. More from the SFMOMA: From 2014 to 2016, artist Richard Mosse documented the mass migration and displacement of people unfolding across Europe, …
African Migrants Stuck in Mexico Plead For Release: “Africa Weeps, Free Us”
The Los Angeles Times featured a story about African Migrants attempting to reach the southern US border to seek asylum. According the the report, over 4,779 Africans have were detained by Mexican authorities in the first seven months of 2019. Migrants told the LATimes: “We just want to get out of here, and arrive to …
Budweiser ad pays homage to founders’ immigrant roots…
Budweiser founder Adolphus Busch’s immigrated to America from Germany. During the 2017 Super Bowl, in the midst of Donald Trump’s chaotic policies banning muslims and detaining child migrants, Budweiser sought a message of inclusion and a call to heritage with this ad:
UK clothing brand Jigsaw ads feature messages of immigration inclusion
Jigsaw, a UK based fashion clothier, featured a campaign citing the ways immigrants help the UK fashion industry stay competitive. With Brexit looming, the company is reaching out to core cosmopolitan customers with a message of philosophical inclusion and association.
United Colors of Benetton Ads Feature Photos of Migrants
Always seeking to stir up conversation, the United Colors of Benetton featured an ad of migrants seeking help in crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe. Read more from BBC….
On Venezuelan Migration: Sebatián Llovera’s Non-Linear Trajectories
by Elvira Blanco By mid-2019, the number of Venezuelans to migrate since the beginning of the Chavista regime in 1999 has reached four million. The phenomenon increased dramatically over the past 4 years, with people fleeing food and healthcare shortages, violence, skyrocketing inflation, and abysmally low wages. The consequences are felt across Latin America, as …
Migration Data – The State of Global Movement
Bloomberg News recently published data looking at global migration patterns by country. It’s a comprehensive, interactive data visualization tool that illuminates the extraordinary number of people on the move. 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 …
Museum Exhibits: “The Warmth of Other Suns” and “When Home Won’t Let You Stay”
The Phillips Collection in Washington DC recently wrapped up an exhibit in partnership with the New Museum in New York, exploring “both real and imaginary geographies, reconstructing personal and collective tales of migration.” More information from the Phillips Collection here… When Home Won’t Let You Stay The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston is featuring …
October 2019 Newsletter
Aasif Mandvi on Ellis Island by Sumita S. Chakravarty Is there a comic vision of migration, or more precisely, a comedian’s take on the matter? We are so used to dark and gloomy images of migrants, to accounts of danger, violence, and death as far as the movement of people across borders is concerned, that …
September 2019 Newsletter: The Migration of Religions, Part 2 by Sumita Chakravarty & The Invisible Wall by Berkley Wilson
The Migration of Religions, part 2 of 2Bali: A Hieroglyphics of the Sacred By Sumita Chakravarty Religion, one might say, is the struggle for the soul of a place. In Bali, this struggle still manifests itself between an externally-driven economy of tourism and an internally-driven (for want of a better term) sensibility of the sacred. To …
Documentary: Midnight Traveler
Directed by Hassan Fazili, ‘Midnight Traveler’ documents his family’s journey as they’re forced to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban put a bounty on his head. From The Guardian: “Midnight Traveler is a film not only of the Fazili family’s own words, but of their own creation – what one would record of a family trip, …
John Oliver Breaks Down The State of Legal Migration in The U.S. in 2019
The HBO network show ‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ breaks down the current state of legal migration in the United States after a summer of lies about the migration process from the president of the United States. Oliver addresses the the concept of the ‘invisible wall,’ the slowdown in the bureaucratic process of approving …
NPR Interview: Jason Deparle, author of ‘A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves’
Reporter Jason DeParle’s new book, ‘A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves’, attempts to capture the global systemic challenges emanating from mass migration. In this interview with NPR ‘All Things Considered’ host Ari Shapiro, DeParle explains why he believes migration is the defining story of the 21st Century. Read more at NPR… …
Activists Target UK Government Treatment of Migrants With Viral Ad Campaign
Hey @ukhomeoffice 👋. Nice new ad campaign you have today, plastered all over London Underground. Honesty is the best policy. 👌 #EndtheHostileEnvironment#WorldRefugeeDay2019#RefugeeWeek pic.twitter.com/I65Bc180GI — Our Future Now (@OurFutureNow_) June 21, 2019 The UK activist group “Our Future Now” launched a guerilla marketing campaign calling out the UK home offices treatment of migrants. With more than …
August 2019 Newsletter: The Migration of Religions, Part 1 by Sumita Chakravarty & The Criminal Immigrant, Part 4 by Jen Evans
THE MIGRATION OF RELIGIONS (PART 1 of 2) BY: SUMITA CHAKRAVARTY The journalist and food writer, Yasmin Khan, said recently that food is a vehicle to understand how cultures interact in areas of conflict. Religion, on the other hand, is so steeped in histories of conflict that our perception, warranted or not, of religion …
July 2019 Newsletter
THE CRIMINAL IMMIGRANT: MYTH, ENEMY, ICON (PART 3 of 4) BY: JEN EVANS “Nowadays, crime’s gone respectable.” These were the words of Captain James Hamilton, Head of Intelligence for the Los Angeles Police Department, as he described the Italian-American Mafia to Ian Fleming circa 1959.1 In his travels to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, and …
June 2019 Newsletter
MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY: CANADA’S NATIONAL MUSEUM BY: SUMITA S. CHAKRAVARTY At a time of increasing fragmentation of civic life and thought in many western societies, it is instructive to ponder the role of national museums in articulating a culture’s collective history, goals, and aspirations. Museums, like sports, are perhaps the mediated experiences still remaining …
May 2019 Newsletter
ENTANGLEMENTS BY: SUMITA S. CHAKRAVARTY “The Multiplication of Perspectives” was the title of a conference hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently (April 26-28, 2019) to mark the 10th anniversary of its Global Research Initiative, C-MAP. The event brought together scholars, artists, and curators to present their work on a variety …
March 2019 Newsletter
SPOILER ALERT! Captain Marvel & The Skulls: Heroes & Villains in a Refugee Crisis contains spoilers for Marvel Entertainment’s most recent film, Captain Marvel. CAPTAIN MARVEL & THE SKRULLS: HEROES AND VILLAINS IN A REFUGEE CRISIS BY: JEN EVANS In last month’s article The Language of Migration: Power and Politics in the American News Media, we discussed biased depictions …
February 2019 Newsletter
TAKE THE #20MOVIECHALLENGE! The Migration+Media Network is taking the #20MovieChallenge! We are highlighting one movie per day for 20 days… and all of our movies are by migrants, about migrants, or starring migrants! Join us on Twitter @migrationmappng and let us know what your favorite migration-related films are! ARGENTINA’S IMMIGRATION MUSEUM BY: SUMITA CHAKRAVARTY Of all the types …
January 2019 Newsletter
TAKE THE #20MOVIECHALLENGE! The Migration+Media Network is taking the #20MovieChallenge! We are highlighting one movie per day for 20 days… and all of our movies are by migrants, about migrants, or starring migrants! Join us on Twitter @migrationmappng and let us know what your favorite migration-related films are! DEFINING “THE MIGRANT”: REFLECTIONS OF AN IMMIGRANT BY: JEN EVANS …
News Articles: 2018
January 2018 Migrant slavery in Libya: Nigerians tell of being used as slaves BBC NEWS JANUARY 2 Returning Migrants Start Over in Sierra Leone NEWS DELHI TIMES JANUARY 2 Libya sends migrants home to Gambia EURONEWS JANUARY 2
December 2018 Newsletter
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! The Migration+Media Network, comprised of Migration Mapping and M2Lab, is now active on social media. Follow us on Twitter @migrationmappng and find us on Facebook @mediaandmigration. MUPPETS & MIGRATION: A LOOK AT SESAME STREET‘S GROUND-BREAKING SUPPORT OF REFUGEE CHILDREN BY: JEN EVANS In researching the interface of media and migration, I …
November 2018 Newsletter
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! The Migration+Media Network, comprised of Migration Mapping and M2Lab, is now active on social media. Follow us on Twitter @migrationmappng DO ALL “CITIES OF DREAMS” DIE? BY: SOFIA CARVALHAES CHERTO SILVEIRA That is the question I kept asking myself when seeing Christiane Badgley’s Guangzhou Dream Factory in a cold room …
October 2018 Newsletter
FIND US ON TWITTER! The Migration+Media Network, comprised of Migration Mapping and M2Lab, is now active on social media. Follow @migrationmappng JIM CARREY’S ART AS A MESSAGE ON IMMIGRATION POLICY AND THE DANGERS OF CENSORSHIP BY: JEN EVANS Hollywood has long used its star power to both promote and resist political agendas. From Marlene Dietrich’s …
September 2018 Newsletter
’90-DAY FIANCÉ’: WHAT REALITY TV TEACHES US ABOUT THE REALITIES OF MIGRATION BY: JEN EVANS Now entering its sixth season, TLC’s ’90-Day Fiancé’ has become popular programming among audiences. The reality show depicts couples as they navigate the K-1 visa process, a pathway to immigration for foreign nationals who are engaged to marry U.S. citizens. Originally established to …
July 2018 Newsletter
Both projects were conceived and executed in a class called The Cinematic Place, taught by the late Deanna Kamiel, who passed away on June 16th. There has been an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from students who were touched by Kamiel’s dedicated service as a professor, and these two projects are products of one of her …
June 2018 Newsletter
Despite the tendency for things to slow down during the Summer, the work being done surrounding issues related to migration seems to be just ramping up. It seems like there are endless opportunities to contribute or discuss, but where to start? In an era of information oversaturation, and a deluge of political movements, …
April 2018 Newsletter
Migration is not just happening across national borders; it is also a risky move forced on women within the United States. I am referring to migratory practice related to the need to have an abortion that some women face. In an assessment published at the beginning of 2018, The Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and …
One Day at a Time
The Rohingya: Silent Abuse | Al Jazeera World
Denied citizenship, forced from their homes, and subjected to cruelty; Al Jazeera investigate the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya.
‘Refugees are a scum’: A social experiment
This social experiment that took place in Australia begins with a man wearing a sign that reads “refugees are scum.” This incites angry reactions from locals and one pedestrian even rips the sign off of the demonstrator. But what are the reactions from the public when he switches his placard to say: “Help the refugees?” …
What if Manhattan…
More than 1.5 million people live in Manhattan. If this happened to all of them, would you notice?
EU migration crisis: The inside story (2016)
On 19 April, one year after the tragic single drowning of hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, which marked the beginning of the “migration crisis”, we look back on how the crisis unfolded through 2015, and how the EU developed its comprehensive response. This is the “inside story”, as told by key witnesses from …
March 2018 Newsletter
Photo Essay By Kai Baldwin Photographs, Susan Sontag famously wrote, anesthetize. But there is nothing anesthetic about the photographs in the exhibition titled, And Then They Came for Me, about the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Given the somber topic, one would expect to be confronted by dark and gloomy images, but what …
February 2018 Newsletter
Immigrant stories have increased greatly over the past fews years, seeming to be only encouraged by the 2016 election and current political climate. Years ago, having immigrant characters at all was considered transgressive. They had to be used sparingly, and with vagueness surrounding their background. This often resulted in some pretty offensive portrayals. Frustratingly, even …
Ghosts, ruins and forced migration: the 2017 Australian Venice Biennale exhibition opens
An exhibition of work by artist Tracey Moffatt has opened at the permanent Australian pavilion in Venice as part of the 2017 International Art Exhibition, or Art Biennale. Moffatt is the first Indigenous artist to represent Australia in Venice since 1997. Housed in the permanent Australian pavilion designed by Denton Corker Marshall that opened in 2015, My Horizon comprises two …
Art in the UAE: the exhibitions and installations to look out for in 2018
This solo show by Venezuelan artist Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck takes up the question of refugees, arguing that human rights NGOs and charities have developed into a full-blown industry, with their own marketing and propaganda techniques. Working as an artist and a researcher, Balteo- Yazbeck proposes that governments and NGOs use human tragedies, such as the migration …
How Architects Can Design ‘Coherent and Peaceful Cities’
Diébédo Francis Kéré designed the next National Assembly building to reflect the reality of life in Ouagadougou. The design by the Berlin-based architect (and Burkina Faso native) is open and transparent, a pyramid whose façade doubles as a public space. The plans include terraces that celebrate (and demonstrate) the country’s agricultural achievements. Low-slung and marked …
For Migrants headed North, The things they carried to the end
Strong political art is tough to make. So, when it turns up, it’s worth a look. In an era of “great, great walls” and “bad hombres”, an exhibition called “State of Exception/Estado de Excepcion” at Parsons School of Design. Click here to read more.
Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter
Bringing together projects by architects, designers, and artists, working in a range of mediums and scales, that respond to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement, the exhibition focuses on conditions that disrupt conventional images of the built environment. This exhibition is part of Citizens and Borders, a series of discrete projects at MoMA related …
Ankledeep by Lubaina Himid
Ankledeep was completed in 1991 in Preston, where Himid lives and works. It is part of a series entitled Revenge: A Masque in Five Tableaux that the artist finished in 1992 and first exhibited that same year at Rochdale Art Gallery. The series comprises twelve works (ten paintings, an installation and a drawing on paper) that include figurative …
January 2018 Newsletter
In June 2011, a lengthy essay by journalist Jose Antonio Vargas was published in The New York Times Magazine. It was titled “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” In the essay, Vargas talks about the complicated logistical aspects of succeeding in America while undocumented, but it is his insight into the psychological impact of feeling …
News Articles: 2017
January 2017 Hungry Venezuelans flood Brazilian towns, as threat of mass migration looms THE WASHINGTON POST JANUARY 1 The Islamization of Germany in 2016 GATESTONE JANUARY 2 Over 8,000 migrants ‘disappeared’ off Swiss radar in 2016 RT JANUARY 3
Facebook, social networks being used in human smuggling
People smugglers are increasingly relying on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, to find their customers. Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Center (EMSC) last year identified 1,150 suspicious social media accounts – a staggering rise from the 148 accounts it was watching in 2015. The trend, which is also is reflected in other parts of the world, …
European citizens want information on migration – not higher walls
Despite being bombarded with headlines about the “migrant crisis” facing Europe, little is really known about how European citizens perceive and experience migration in their daily lives. As part of our ongoing research we’ve found that rather than linking “irregular” migration with fears of terrorism, EU citizens have a more nuanced position on border security. The people …