“Migrants are not just there to be spoken about, they have a voice. They just don’t have a platform to have their voices heard. Our job as Civil Society is to find a way to create those platforms,” says Lorenzo Vargas, Sustainable Development and Communication Rights Specialist for The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), at the 14th Global Forum on Migration and Development Summit.

Mr. Vargas discussed the effects that certain narratives on migration have on the lives of migrants. “The first risk is the proliferation of xenophobic discourse. But narratives are also being instrumentalized by different political actors to generate fear and division in many societies, and really to prey on some of the weakest people,” he says.

“The other big issue we see is the growth of disinformation and misinformation around migration, and especially among migrant communities, who are often lacking appropriate and accurate information about their migration journey and are lured to different countries with false promises of prosperity.”

Mr. Vargas was interviewed during the first day of the 14th GFMD Summit, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 23 January 2024.