World Press Photo Contest 2016 View Russian photographer Sergey Ponomarev’s collection of winning images from the 59th World Press Photo Contest. See all: world press photo
World Press Photo Contest 2016: Reporting Europe’s Refugee Crisis
People on the move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series
More than 75 years ago, a young artist named Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) set to work on an ambitious 60-panel series portraying the Great Migration, the movement between the World Wars of over a million African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North in search of a better life. Today, the exhibition organized by …
A conversation with artist Jesse Chun
— Conducted by Sumita Chakravarty The following conversation was inspired by an exhibition by Jesse Chun in which bureaucratic documents of travel are central to artworks that unpack their varied meanings. such documents are at once material objects and carriers of fraught signification in the contemporary world. Chun literally peels back the layers to bring to …
List of academic conferences on migration (2013-2015)
2015 “MIGRATION, MEDIA AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE,” 25-26 NOVEMBER 2015, UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY, BARCELONA “TRANSIENT MIGRATION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC: IDENTITIES, SOCIAL NETWORKS AND MEDIA,” 12 NOVEMBER 2015, RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE “MANAGING BORDERS,” 3-4 APRIL 2015, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK “GENDER, CULTURE & MIGRATION,” 6-7 MARCH 2015, UNIVERSITY OF GDANSK, POLAND 2014 “DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION,” 23–25 …
List of academic articles on migration (1981 to 2016)
2011-2016 Scott Blinder and William L. Allen. “Constructing Immigrants: Portrayals of Migrant Groups in British National Newspapers, 2010–2012.” International Migration Review. Spring 2016. Shepard, Mark. “Minor Urbanism: Everyday Entanglements of Technology and Urban Life”Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 2013 (v 27, no. 4), 483 – 494 BECK, Ulrich AND DANIEL LEVY, “COSMOPOLITANIZED NATIONS: RE-IMAGINING COLLECTIVITY IN WORLD RISK …
List of academic books on migration (1890s to 2012)
2011-12 CELIK, IPEK A. IN PERMANENT CRISIS: ETHNICITY IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN MEDIA AND CINEMA. ANN ARBOR: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS, 2015. MARTIN, Susan. A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2012. MOORE, KERRY, BERNHARD GROSS AND TERRY THREADGOLD. EDS. MIGRATIONS AND THE MEDIA. NY: PETER LANG, 2012. JONES, Amelia. SEEING DIFFERENTLY: A HISTORY AND THEORY OF IDENTIFICATION AND THE VISUAL …
Fire at Sea
— by Andrea Avidad and Sumita Chakravarty “The reaction of which man has been dispossessed can be replaced only by belief. Only belief in the world can reconnect man to what he sees and hears. The cinema must film, not the world, but belief in the world –this is the power of the modern cinema” …
Camp Code: How to navigate a refugee settlement
Claudia Martínez is an independent researcher who articulated brief sketches describing the spatial and material organization of refugee camps in the Palestinian camp of Bourj Al Shamali, situated high on a hill in southern Lebanon Find the article here
The Night-Side of Hospitals: Migrant doctors and the medical system
Anna Harris and photographer Thomas Fuller undertook an ethnographic study of migrant doctors in Melbourne hospitals, documenting regulatory and cultural barriers present in the mobility of healthcare professionals. Find the article here
Transborder Immigrant Tool: Transition
Almost five years ago, Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab released the first iteration of the Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBT), a mobile-phone technology that provides poetry to immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border while leading them to water caches in the Southern California desert. Creative writer Leila Nadir discusses the role of art and activism with Ricardo …
Article: George Lipsitz, The Meaning of Memory (1986)
American Studies scholar George Lipsitz’s article The Meaning of Memory: Family, Class, and Ethnicity in Early Network Television Programs (1986) examines how the “historical specificity of early network television programs led their creators into dangerous ideological terrain”. “The presence of this subgenre of ethnic, working-class situation comedies on television network schedules seems to run contrary …
Publication: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890)
How the Other Half Lives (1890) was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis. The publication documented the poor living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. “Nothing would probably have shocked their original owners more than the idea of their harboring a promiscuous crowd; for they were the decorous homes of …
Article: Edward Said, Between Worlds (1998)
Edward Said makes sense of his life. “The day in early September 1951 when my mother and father deposited me at the gates of that school and then immediately left for the Middle East was probably the most miserable of my life.” https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n09/edward-said/between-worlds
Jesse Chun’s ‘On Paper’
On Paper: Visual Artist Jesse Chun explores visual rhetoric involved in identity and mobility through an appropriation and transformation of the familiar marks contained in immigration documents. On Paper was shown from July until October 2016 at the Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York City. Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Jesse Chun explores interdependencies between aspects of identity, …
Coriolis Effect: Migration & Memory
Coriolis Effect extends its original curatorial intention of tracing cultural and historical exchanges in the Indian Ocean Worlds, and invites speculations on ideas of movement, displacement and the formation of new and informal models of 21st century communities. The artists selected for the residency represent a diverse geographical spread, and have approached the project concept …
Musicians in a Refugee Camp in France Record ‘The Calais Sessions’
From The New York Times: “I am happy, like a myna/Life in a caravan, thinking about my friends/Let’s go to the garden,” go the upbeat lyrics from “Khandahar,” a poem first written in English and then translated to Farsi by two Afghan sisters, ages 9 and 12, who were living in a trailer in the sprawling …
‘Great Migration’ films highlight transformative power of African-American communities
“Yes, individuals make up communities, and individuals may lead organizations, but it’s really rooted in communities,” said Massiah. “In some ways, institutions are official ways of recognizing communities.” A selection of four films exploring the transformative power of African American communities in Philadelphia will be touring in different libraries and recreations throughout the city, …
British Journal of Photography: The Migration Issue
Putting a face to the greatest humanitarian crisis of out time http://www.bjp-online.com/2016/08/editors-introduction-the-migration-issue-bjp-7851/
Refugees Caught Up in Child Prostitution
Journalist Daniel Howden explores the rise of prostitution among underaged refugees who are settled in Greece. A two-part investigation for Refugees Deeply that reveals a critical situation which mixes the Middle East Crisis and the economic recession in the E.U. “They have got mixed up in a crisis that has nothing to do with them and has …
A Yemeni Teenager’s Trip to Estonia, by Way of Guantánamo
New York Times reporter Charlie Savage describes the impact of an article he wrote about an ex-Guantanamo detainee – on readers, the subject and the writer. The journalist interviews Ahmed Abdul Qader, a Yemeni man who was imprisoned on charges of terrorism for a period of 13 years during Bush’s presidency. After his release, he found refuge in …
But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa
But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise gathers artwork from different contemporary artists such as Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Kader Attia who aim to explore issues of moving and migration in the Middle East and North Africa. Exhibition on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City running until October 5th, 2016 Find the Exhibition Overview …
In the shadow of Trump’s Walls: Peter van Agtmael Photos
Photographer Peter van Agtmael, in collaboration with CNN and represented by Magnum Photos, portrays the U.S. – Mexico border in South Texas. The reportage frames the interaction between U.S. Republican Candidate Donald Trump and Pete Saenz, major of Laredo, a Texan City whose population is 96% Latino. Find the reportage along the photographic work in the …
Chantal Akerman’s ‘From the Other Side’: Invisible Migrants
Director: Chantal Akerman 2002 “Sometimes the absence is stronger than the presence” One of the striking features of Chantal Akerman’s documentary, ‘From the Other Side,’ is that so often the faces of Mexicans captured in the film are blurry, as if to underscore their anonymity and invisibility in terms of the long history …
Comic: Myanmar’s Rohingya Refugees
Author/illustrator Erik Thurman is an award-nominated creator who specializes in long-form comics journalism and nonfiction comics about current events. On August 1st, 2016, the political comics/cartoons website The Nib published his comic on the Myanmar Rohingya refugee crisis, which can be read in full here.
Mapping Migrant Journeys
– by Sumita Chakravarty There is a kind of matter-of-factness in the voices we hear in Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project, a series of eight videos that is currently installed in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Each video is projected on a screen and as we move from …
Emigration Museum in Gdynia, Poland
“The history of departures from the Polish lands is hundreds of years old. People traveled to different parts of the world for sustenance, in search of freedom, or for a different life. After Poland regained its independence, this situation remained unchanged. The journey was tackled on foot, by rail, aboard ships or – later – …
The Architecture of Displacement
More than 500 children live in the refugee camp at Calais, France, which is today a growing town at the mouth of the Chunnel. The majority of these children are unaccompanied by parents or guardians. Life in the so-called “Jungle” is painful and tentative for them: According to Help Refugees, 129 children could not be …
The Emigration Museum
– Sumita Chakravarty A brand-new and impressive Emigration Museum in Gydnia, Poland overlooks the Baltic Sea, conjuring up for the visitor the scene of countless departures of Poles for other shores over the past three centuries. As the museum’s brochure informs us, 20 million Poles are currently living abroad, and the Polish diaspora is the …
MSNBC Special: Damned for Trying
This project is by MSNBC in partnership with Magnum Photos The largest flow of modern African migration funnels through a single country — Libya. Coming from the south, migrants flee the vestiges of wars that have left entire nations in ruin. From the east, they escape a life of indefinite military servitude and violent conflict. …
Hamsa (2016)
“Hamsa is a documentary and educational platform with an audacious goal: motivate viewers to alleviate the Syrian refugee crisis. The short documentary highlights one family’s struggles after reaching Germany, and allows those watching to put a face to the global issues. Hamsa is a Syrian refugee and mother of three who migrated with her husband from …
Syrian Refugee’s Viral Story Found Him a Home
“Mohsen’s story went viral after he was filmed being tripped up by a camerawoman as he fled police near the Hungarian border with Serbia last September. He was carrying his youngest son Zaid, then 7, in his arms at the time, and the two fell sprawling on the ground. Footage of the incident helped bring …
A New Documentary Takes us Inside Australia’s Refugee Detainment Camps
“Over the last few years, the Australian government has been leaning hard into an anti-refugee plan known as “the Pacific Solution.” Created to stop the arrival of boats filled with asylum seekers from countries like Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, the Pacific Solution is a program that reads like something out of Donald Trump’s playbook: …
What the Refugee Crisis tells us about Journalism
“Take any crisis that makes the headlines — the flow of refugees in the Middle East, Europe and the Horn of Africa; outbreaks of deadly or devastating viruses such as Ebola or Zika; drought emergencies in Ethiopiaand Malawi. Does journalism help to explain them? Or solve them? These questions were asked at the Polis conference of the London School of Economics on 21 April. The …
Refugee social media doesn’t always reflect reality
“The Guardian ran an interesting article about Gambian refugees, many of whom are disappointed to discover their lives aren’t much better in Europe than they were at home. One small detail about these struggling refugees that stuck out to me in the piece: Migrants, worried they will disappoint their families back home, don’t post about their struggles …
Immigration and National Security: Moving Beyond 9/11
Two reports from the Center for Immigration Studies are discussed; Janice Kepharts’s “Immigration & Terrorism: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Terrorist Travel” and James R. Edwards’ “Keeping Extremist Out: The History of Ideological Exclusion and Need For Its Revival.” Both reports are centered on efforts to prevent further attacks on American soil and …
The Value of Knitting for an Afghan Refugee
The short documentary Stitches is the story of a man who finds peace in knitting —after establishing a life in exile as an Afghan refugee during the Soviet–Afghan War. The subject is the filmmaker Abdullah Abo Jassin’s uncle, who writes, “His story connects in a way with all what my family has been through over …
Working From Home – A Photo Essay
These migrant workers travel wherever they can find employment. Some just for a season before returning home, others from city to city or country to country constantly looking for work. The photojournalist Irving Villegas has been documenting the lives of seasonal workers in different countries Germany Asparagus season Every year about 270,000 workers come to …
Migration and the Culture of Anguish
By Sumita Chakravarty Lotte’s mother: How did you know it was me? Nejat Aksu: You are the saddest person here. In his film, The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, 2008), Turkish-German filmmaker, Fatih Akin foregrounds pain, loss, and the pathos of brief encounters through three intertwined narratives that touch each other, one might …
Francis Alÿs films children’s games in refugee camps in northern Iraq
“The artist Francis Alÿs is exploring the idea of a film about children playing in the refugee camps he visited in northern Iraq at the end of February. The Belgian-born, Mexico City-based artist was on his first research trip to the region, where he filmed and took photographs of children playing games such as marbles …
Immigrant Nation
“Immigrant Nation explores our connections to immigration, past and present, through storytelling. At the heart of the project is a simple idea: the U.S. is a nation shaped by immigration, and most families have personal story about it. These stories, whether they happened generations ago or quite recently, are not often shared. We want to bring them …
A visual guide to 75 years of major refugee crises around the world
“The conflict in Syria has now displaced 12 million people, creating the largest wave of refugees to hit Europe since World War II. But in the last half century, other events around the world have pushed even larger numbers of people to flee war and persecution. Here’s a brief guide to the major refugee events …
Bouchra Khalili: The Mapping Journey Project
Bouchra Khalili: The Mapping Journey Project Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY April 9–August 28, 2016 This exhibition presents, in its entirety, Bouchra Khalili’s The Mapping Journey Project (2008–11), a series of videos that details the stories of eight individuals who have been forced by political and economic circumstances to travel illegally and whose …
The Deadly Journey From Libya’s Migrant Jails
From VICE News: “Desperate to escape conflict and poverty, thousands of migrants and refugees attempt the perilous journey to Europe each year, with many crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa in rubber dinghies and wooden boats. In the wake of the decommissioning of Mare Nostrum, a search and rescue operation run by Italy, the …
Caitlin Moran asks “What is a Refugee?”
Journalist and author Caitlin Moran recently took to her YouTube channel, Caitlin’s Moranifesto, to ask the questions “What is a Refugee?” and “Why should we be supporting them?” “Refugees,” Moran says, “are also preventing themselves from being weaponised in the future. How many people who can’t leave Syria and Afghanistan… will be coerced into joining Isis …
Mediterranea (2015)
MEDITERRANEA by Jonas Carpignano, USA 2015: Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in …
Migration’s Psychogeographies
If, as Alfred Korzybski famously observed, “The map is not the territory,” what are some alternate ways of exploring our relationship to the areas we traverse and the spaces we occupy? There is by now a vast literature on cartography and map-making as it historically evolved to make possible the ubiquity of maps that we …
Light on the Sea
Light on the Sea: One Woman’s Story from the Front Lines of the Refugee Crisis This documentary takes us to the front lines of the world’s refugee crisis as Neda, a Syrian American, helps refugees coming from boats into Lesbos, Greece. No media spin. No politics. Just people who want to live. Credits: Directed and …
Citizen or Alien?
— by Sumita Chakravarty The U.S. presidential campaign of 2016 has once again brought the issue of migration and citizenship to the forefront of political debate and public discussion. In particular, immigration into the U.S. as a threat to national well-being and economic prosperity is regarded as one of the two major reasons for the …
Fashion Photographer Turns Refugee Crisis Into Offensive High-End Fashion Shoot
“Hungarian fashion photographer Norbert Baksa has come under fire for a refugee-themed fashion photo shoot he conceptualized and shot at the Hungarian border. “Der Migrant,” which features models wearing headscarves and designer duds before a backdrop of barbed wire fences, was released on the photographer’s personal website and Twitter account last week to predictably less-than-stellar reviews. …
Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora
The George Washington University Museum April 16–September 4, 2016 In this juried and invitational exhibition, forty-four artists share personal and universal stories of migration—from historic events that scattered communities across continents to today’s accounts of migrants and refugees adapting to a new homeland. Co-organized with the Studio Art Quilt Associates and with assistance from GW’s Diaspora …
Documenting the Undocumented: Carceral Architecture and Migrant Bodies with Tings Chak
“The last podcast published on Archipelago is a conversation with Tings Chak, Toronto-based migrant justice organizer (as part of the organization No One Is Illegal for example), as well as a multidisciplinary designer. Tings is about to publish a graphic-essay book entitled Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention (The Architecture Observer, 2014) that articulates the two aspects of her work as an organizer …
Redesigning Refugee Camps
“’An Alternative Handbook for Refugee Camp Design’ responds to increases in both the number of refugees worldwide and the number of years refugees spend in camps. While not all refugees live in camps, the focus of my research and design proposal is on camp models designed for 20,000 people (as per the UNHCR’s guidelines). Whereas …
Architecture of Remittances
“Problem: How can trends in architecture and urbanization in the daily lives of people respond to the forced migrations in Central America and everywhere through a recognition that they don’t happen in a vacuum but rather stem from root causes that force them? Why are so many people from Central America looking for a better life somewhere …
Forensic Oceanography: The Left-To-Die Boat
“The Forensic Oceanography project was launched in summer 2011 to support a coalition of NGOs demanding accountability for the deaths of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea while that region was being tightly monitored by the NATO-led coalition intervening in Libya. The efforts were focused on what is now known as the “left-to-die boat” case, in …
The ‘wearable dwelling’ – a coat for refugees that turns into a tent
“Design students have created a coat for refugees that can be reconfigured into a tent or a sleeping bag big enough to hold an adult and a child. The garment, which resembles a three-quarter length puffa jacket with a hood when worn, gives fresh meaning to the term “wearable technology”…” Read more
The Framing of Space in the European Refugee Crisis
“My sister has asked me what my perspective is on the death of thousands of refugees in Europe this summer. Herewith. There is obviously a spatial aspect to the immigration crisis unfolding in Europe. The question is whether there is also an answer to be found in the framing, forming, and allocation of space. Some …
Syrian Refugees Recreate Destroyed Monuments to Always Remember Their Culturally Rich Architecture
“From a vantage point here in Za’atari, a group of Syrian artists have taken it upon themselves to recreate miniature models of the monuments that have been ruined. In efforts to combat the feelings of outrage and helplessness, these painstaking recreations serve as an act of defiance. The original sites may be have been destroyed, …
Architects Create Homes Refugees Can Build Themselves
“Since 2011, over 4 million Syrians have left their homes to avoid the civil war, with roughly 629,000 going to Jordan. A hundred thousand live in refugee camps there, including at the Middle East’s largest camp, the Za’atari. There, over half of the occupants are children, and it’s difficult to educate or train them, according to …
The Problem With Refugee Camps (Architecture, Design, Planning)
“For decades our television screens have been dominated by images of ragged people, hopelessly isolated within political limbo as destitute refugees. Movies describe refugee camps as exotic edge-of-the-earth locales full of victimized dark-skinned people. Magazines and websites occasionally release an article on a brand new shelter technology, solar stove, or water pump that is expected …
The (In)visible Architecture of Illegalised Refugees
“In the last few months groups of refugees have been campaigning to attract attention to their precarious position. Currently their applications for asylum in the Netherlands have been rejected, but they are unable to return to their country of origin for various reasons. The most important tool of their struggle has been the creation of a …
How Refugee Camp Architecture Is Capturing the Power of Shade
“Refugee camps set up by governmental agencies, international organizations like the United Nations and the Red Cross, and NGOs provide a place for displaced people to temporarily access food, water, and shelter. Camps are often set up in an impromptu fashion, designed only to provide basic needs for a short period of time. Tents constructed …
This Low-Cost Refugee Camp Architecture Is Made From Sand
“At the sprawling, city-like Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, the average Syrian refugee is expected to stay as long as 17 years. And yet despite that time frame, many people are living in canvas tents that can start to fall apart in months. The U.N. is starting to invest in longer-lived prefab housing, like clever …
Architectures of the Disaster
“45.2 million people are currently displaced by conflict and persecution,according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR). The number accords with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees articulation of a refugee as: an individual who has fled their country “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, …
Why the refugee crisis calls for imaginative urban planning
“One fixture in the pictures that went round the world in the recent week of violent clashes outside a refugee shelter in Heidenau, Saxony, was the blue-and-yellow “Praktiker” sign, left over from the building’s days as a DIY center. It was repurposed by local authorities at short notice after heavy rain turned the refugee tent …
Beyond the Tent: Why Refugee Camps Need Architects (Now More than Ever)
“In 2013 alone some 1 million people have poured out of Syria to escape a civil conflict that has been raging for over two years. The total number of Syrian refugees is well over 2 million, an unprecedented number and a disturbing reality that has put the host countries under immense infrastructural strain. Host countries …
Home is Ready-to-Wear; an essay by Steven Rugare
“Most 21st century Americans live more like migrants or squatters than we would care to admit. The spaces we call “home” are generic, sometimes shockingly so. Very few of us live in a house custom-designed to our needs by an architect. The suburban landscape of cookiecutter houses is a literary cliché going back to the …
Architecture and Migration: Mosques in Germany
The earliest mosque-style building in Germany is the “Red Mosque” at Schwetzingen, built in 1779-1791 by a French architct for the Prince Elector of the Palatinate as part of a palace complex. Built at a time when the “Turkish” style was fashionable in Germany, it was never intended for prayer but later served religious purposes …
What’s missing from coverage on migration? Migrants.
From The Guardian: “A study of media coverage, released today, looked at how migrant voices and experiences were framed in the run-up to last year’s election and came up with findings that, even if not entirely new, cast yet more light on a subject of continuing public interest. As its title implies, Victims and Villains* …
Songs of the Syrian Refugees
“With his brow furrowed in concentration, Abu Abdullah rhythmically strums his oud, exploring the core of a melancholic melody. Mohamad Isa Almaziodi’s robust and melismatic voice soars above, full of emotional ornamentation – sighing and repeating, rising and falling – until he runs out of breath and the phrase is forced to finish. In his …
Migrant Voices: On the Journey North
From the LA Times: “The Vatican has said that Pope Francis’ journey through Mexico, which takes him from the southern state of Chiapas to the northern border with Texas, symbolically traces the route of migrants trying to reach the United States. Five Central American migrants attempting that journey reflect on their faith and the pope’s …
The Lotus Flower (2016)
From the Director, Jamie Noel: “With special thanks to Maya Konforti and all of our other friends who contributed to this film. This week, a huge portion of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais is due to be bulldozed. We can not sit back at let this happen… This film highlights everything we stand to lose …
Twelve-year-old Calais refugee: ‘I want to go to England’
“Inside one of the aid tents set up inside the migrant camp known as the ‘jungle’ 12 year old Sultana Adam helps her mother to hand out bags of food for the estimated 3000 residents. Sultana fled her home in Jalalabad four months ago and walked for a month to make it to Calais and …
Fire at Sea (2015)
“Fire at Sea, a harrowing documentary about Europe’s refugee crisis, has clinched the Golden Bear top prize from a jury led by Meryl Streep at the Berlin film festival. The movie by Italian director Gianfranco Rosi offers an unflinching look at life on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where thousands of asylum seekers from Africa …
Syrian humanitarian aid in the technology age
“The conflict in Syria has left 6.5 million people internally displaced and created more than 2.2 million refugees. The bulk are living in the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, where the demands on humanitarian agencies and host governments are huge. Helping relieve this burden is the application of smart technologies.” Click here …
Sin Maletas: Stories of Refugees from Exile
Sin Maletas is an ongoing multimedia journalistic project, started in 2016 by Mexican news outlet Lo Político, that seeks to create awareness of forced migration as a worldwide problem and acknowledge the positive contributions of refugees to the societies in which they live. The exiles interviewed in this project were selected based on the ranking …
What Does Poland Think of This Offensive Polish Magazine Cover About ‘Islam Raping Europe’?
“This week, the popular right-wing Polish magazine wSieci ran a cover that has offended a lot of people. Reason being: It features an image of a woman being grabbed at by numerous hairy arms, and the words: “The Islamic Rape of Europe.” The photograph—which, minus the hands, looks a lot like a stock image for …
Refugee cat’s epic journey to find family
Kunkush the cat was a beloved member of a family who became refugees when they fled Iraq for the safety of Europe. Travelling through Greece, cat and family became separated, sparking an international online search in hopes of reuniting them. This is Kunkush’s story: Credits: The Guardian Refugee cat’s epic journey to find family Refugee …
Marvel Comics’ secret weapon is a woman named Sana Amanat
On the last day of New York Comic Con, Sana Amanat begins the annual Women of Marvel panel with what is now a yearly tradition. “How many of you want to make comics? Women, men, everybody — stand up right now,” she says. Young girls dressed as superheroes — there’s Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Thor, and …
Canal Capital: Relatos del Exilio
Colombian television channel Canal Capital created “Relatos del Exilio”, an eleven-episode series that tells the stories of Colombians who were forced to change their lives when fleeing a conflict or individual persecution in the country. This is a journalistic video project that features the direct testimonies of ten citizens now scattered across the world, from Sweden to …
Refugee Republic: Interactive Online Documentary
Set in the Domiz Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq, Refugee Republic uses a mixture of illustration, photography, moving image, recorded sound and text to give viewers insight into the daily lives of the camp’s 58,000 refugees. The online experience was designed by Dutch agency Submarine Channel – a producer of web documentaries and motion comics – …
Selfies, Smartphones Bring Comfort To Migrants On Balkan Route
Maziad Aloush, a former school teacher fleeing the Syrian war, led his band of refugees through five countries—across the Mediterranean sea and through forests and around mountains—before they eventually disbanded near the border of Austria and Germany. Like so many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into Europe to escape war and deprivation, he …
How refugees are using Google Maps, social media to cross borders
Europe’s refugee crisis is growing more complicated by the day. European Union interior ministers are set to meet for emergency talks on Monday, after Germany was forced to reintroduce checks at its border with Austria to stem the continuing flow of refugees. But thousands of refugees determined to flee life-threatening situations at home continue to arrive …
Using Facebook, Cameras, and Cash, Syrian Refugees Are Trying to Save Each Other
Mohamad drives with one hand, squinting at the afternoon sun as his phone rings for the fifth time in the past half an hour. The lanky 25-year-old Syrian shrugs the mobile to his ear with one shoulder, scribbling numbers on a Post-it as he repeats them out loud: “$1,000 to Tripoli; $200 to Hiba’s family; …
The refugee crisis; the power of social media
They ran in the dark towards the Austria-Hungary border. Some had flashlights. Some scampered through the shadows. Some were registered under UN regulations, others were not. They did not know where they were going and they did not know what would happen to them. They ran, hungry, thirsty and blind. This was the scene when …
Syrian Refugees: Canadians Relying On Social Media To Help Newcomers
HALIFAX — Val Macdonald says it only took a few minutes before a little red notification popped up on her Facebook page after posting about donations for a Syrian refugee family. The privately-sponsored refugees arrived in British Columbia’s Comox Valley in October, but they needed some essential items. Macdonald, who helps run the Syrian Refugee Support …
U.S. screening refugees’ social media accounts
Homeland Security is now trying to screen the social media accounts of Iraqi and Syrian refugee applicants, an agency chief said, as evidence emerges that immigration officers missed potential clues that foreign fighters left in cyberspace about their intentions. Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that screens refugees, told C-SPAN …
‘Facebook refugees’ chart escape from Syria on cell phones
Refugees and migrants are scattered all across this island. They wash their clothes on the beach below the crumbling ramparts of a 1,400-year-old castle that once defended Lesbos. They camp in tents in the parks. At night, they trudge past bars and restaurants where Greeks drink ouzo and dine on grilled fish. But the wave …
Norway launches anti-refugee advertising campaign
Norway’s immigration authorities have launched an advertising campaign in print and social media to deter refugees from seeking asylum in the country, following the controversial campaigns launched in Denmark. The Norwegian directorate of immigration sent a message out on Twitter on Friday, and again on Monday morning, warning Afghans planning to cross the country’s northern …
Denmark advert in Lebanon newspapers warns off refugees
Denmark has placed advertisements in four Lebanese newspapers announcing tighter regulations and cuts in provisions for asylum seekers. The advertisement published on Monday said that social assistance for newly arrived refugees was being reduced by up to 50 percent. Those granted temporary protection would not have the right to family reunification for the first year …
Greece’s Cemetery for Unknown Migrant Dead
From Reuters: “The marble plaques in this makeshift cemetery on the Greek island of Lesbos mark the graves of unknown refugees and migrants. Many of the those buried here were from the Middle East — all of them drowned in the Mediterranean trying to get to Europe’s shores. Their headstones bear no names … mute …
Ai Weiwei Reveals Berlin Installation via Instagram
From an article by Lauren Said-Moorhouse for CNN Style: “Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has covered a Berlin landmark with thousands of refugee life jackets for his latest installation. The striking display is the activist’s latest attempt to highlight the scale of migrants taking to the seas every day. Ai’s team began wrapping 14,000 discarded life …
Animation: Immigration Impact on the UK
From the National Institute of Economic and Social Research: “Opinion polls have shown for some time that the public sees immigration as one of the most important issues facing Britain (Ipsos Mori, 2015). At the same time, public understanding of evidence on the economic impacts of immigration is poor and strongly influenced by the media. …
Refugee Family Test
Refugee Action, an organization that “helps refugees who’ve survived some of the world’s worst regimes […] get the basic support they need to live again with dignity,” recently launched an online interactive test to show how policy is impacting families trying to reunite after arriving in the U.K. Click below on the image to take the …
Journeys: How travelling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment
Although immigration is a dominant topic in contemporary culture, its discussion is often limited to the human experience, such as the crossing of borders and issues about national identity. The Journeys exhibition at the CCA takes a different perspective: how movements impact on the environment. Examples range from the coconut that can drift freely on …
The value of immigrants to the UK economy: Sophie Barrett-Brown
Corporate Governance Report interviews international migration expert Sophie Barrett-Brown on the value of immigrants to UK corporations. Immigrants to the UK have received a rush of negative press, confounded by low public support. But how valuable are immigrants to UK corporations, and how easy are they to employ? Corporate Governance Report interviews Sophie Barrett-Brown from …
How Capitalism Expels Refugees: Saskia Sassen
Abby Martin interviews Professor Saskia Sassen about the undiscussed facts behind the 60 million refugees worldwide. Saskia Sassen is a sociologist noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration. She is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and Centennial visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Her most recent …
News Articles: 2015
February 2015 Perception, Policy, and Migration 17 Feb 2015 Pacific Standard Magazine IOM: Some 3,800 Migrants Rescued from Mediterranean since Friday 17 Feb 2015 Voice of America News Canada’s millionaire migrants earn less than refugees, so why bother with wealth migration? 17 Feb 2015 South China Morning Post
Hotline aids families of border crossers
“There are 2,771 crosses, so 2,771 human remains since 2000,” says Cristen Vernon Coalición de Derechos Humanos, Missing Migrant Hotline coordinator for Derechos Humanos. That number, she says, only accounts for a fraction of those who have died along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. More than 6,330 people have died along the southwest border with Mexico …
Ingrid Butler’s ‘Migration’
It was hard for Ingrid Butler not to feel helpless whenever she heard or read about the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Syria, trying to make their way across the Mediterranean Sea to hoped-for safety. Butler lived along the Amalfi coast decades ago; she still feels a deep connection to the area. “It got …
Banksy uses Steve Jobs to highlight Refugee Crisis
“Banksy has revealed a new artwork, sprayed on a wall in the Calais refugee camp called “the Jungle,” intended to address negative attitudes towards the thousands of people living there. […] In a rare state accompanyting the work, Banksy said:“We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources, but Steve Jobs …