IOM’s new global social media campaign #MigrationMeans continues

What does migration mean to you? Contribute your own stories and participate in a global dialogue on migration! See some of the entries here

IOM has launched a social media campaign – #MigrationMeans – to raise awareness of migration in all its forms and to highlight the positive impact of migration from the perspective of the migrants themselves.

“This campaign aims to be the voice of the migrants for whom IOM works,” said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing. “Migrants bring a lot with them, new skills, cultural diversity and energy. But in crises, migration takes on new associations – shelter, warmth, access to health services, food, water, and so on. The campaign will communicate the meaning of migration across the broadest canvas.”

IOM is inviting migrants to tell the world what migration means for them and how migration has changed their life via social media.

With its two billion users around the world, Facebook and Twitter, the leaders in social media, have become a driver of global migration.

Millions of migrants are now using them to network, to locate jobs, to figure out the best way to send remittances home or to assess the risks of irregular migration.

The campaign will kick off with IOM staff around the world inviting migrants to say what migration means to them, using the #MigrationMeans hashtag with a photo and a short caption.

Each picture will include someone, or several people, holding up signs saying what migration means to them.

“This campaign, which will run through International Migrants Day on 18th December, should help to advance the understanding of migration through individual stories,” says Ambassador Swing.

“At a time when one in seven people around the world are migrants in one form or another, migration is still, paradoxically, viewed with suspicion, particularly in the developed world. We hope that this campaign will dispel that suspicion and encourage positive dialogue,” he adds.

Follow the campaign on facebook.

For more information, please contact
IOM NL CommunicationsThe Hague
Email: iomthehaguecomm@iom.int
Tel. +31.70.31.81.500

This article was taken from: http://www.iom-nederland.nl/en/351-iom-launches-social-media-campaign-to-raise-migrant-visibility

Check out the storify collection of tweets for this campaign here:

Lets hear what #MigrationMeans to you! An IOM global social media campaign

https://storify.com/IOM/migration-means