How can NGOs convince people of the importance of stepping up their support of migrants and refugees in the face of increased politicization of the issue? A discussion with Oxfam’s Eva Garzón Hernández and Pablo Andrés Rivero Morales and journalists José María León Cabrera and Yuly Jara.
In an era of increased politicization of migration and perceived polarization around the issue, we may feel that NGOs’ messages on migration don’t reach their objectives. Four experts specialized in migration-related communications discussed good practices, pitfalls to avoid, and new communication opportunities during the Global Forum on Migration and Development held in Quito, Ecuador, from 21 to 24 January.
Remember That Not Everyone Who Disagrees With You Is a Bad Person
Research has proven time and time again that providing facts and figures doesn’t easily sway people’s perceptions. Rather, when confronted with opinions contrary to our own, we tend to entrench ourselves more deeply in our preexisting conceptions, even when evidence contradicts our beliefs. How then can we convince people of the urgency of solidarity with migrants?
“I think it’s important to understand that people who reject the idea of receiving migrants in their countries are not essentially bad people,” says journalist José María León Cabrera. He adds that most of these people don’t experience their opinions as a sense of racial superiority.
Studies conducted in France and South America point to the idea that a majority of the population are somewhat ambivalent towards migration, feeling empathy and a desire to welcome migrants and refugees in need while simultaneously wishing for stricter border enforcement.
This irrational position can be explained by an equally irrational force: fear of the unknown. “They don’t know much about the ‘other’, which makes them fearful,” says León.
Fear can trigger primal responses that bypass rational thinking. It kept our ancestors alive in the face of predators and enemies. However, it doesn’t serve us well in responding to many current-day issues, including migratory policies. León believes that knowledge – conveyed through telling migrants’ stories – can help alleviate fear. But this is only possible if people’s concerns are addressed in a manner to which they can relate.
“Sometimes NGOs have spoken from a position of moral superiority, assuming that all those who don’t support migrants are racist,” says Oxfam’s Eva Garzón Hernández. “There are a whole lot of concerns […] that have not been addressed by the pro-migration discourse.” These concerns may focus on job security or a perceived increase of insecurity in public spaces and are often utilized by anti-migration factions to increase their political traction.
A recent Oxfam report suggests that such concerns are often founded upon real structural weaknesses that pre-exist the arrival of migrants. Migrants then become the scapegoats for these issues, and their root causes are ignored.
Because fear is such a powerful tool, it is essential to avoid romanticizing migrants when telling their stories. “If all you do is say how good migrants are, then tomorrow, when a migrant does something wrong, everything you’ve been working for will collapse,” and those who gain from a negative stereotyping of migrants will invariably profit, says journalist and fact-checker Yuly Jara. Migrants should be presented as complex individuals capable of both right and wrong. Above all, assistance to migrants should be presented not through the lens of an individual’s worthiness, but rather as every person’s right to access their fundamental human rights.
Adapt Your Message to Your Audience
Addressing an audience’s concerns requires an understanding of who they are. “Don’t assume that everyone shares your values,” says Garzón. Multiculturalism and diversity may be strong values for many people in the NGO world, but they might not resonate with everyone. For a particular segment of the population, for example, family and patriotism may be more important and one might advance a cause further by telling stories that depict family unity or the positive impact of migrants on their host country. “If you speak to them on terms they agree about,” says Garzón, people will be more receptive.
People will also be more inclined to listen to a message if it describes a tangible reality they can relate to in their daily lives rather than abstract concepts. Telling the story of migrants first can help tap into people’s capacity for empathy. Once they have discovered someone they can relate to, they’ll be more open to listening to facts and figures. The language chosen to portray migrants can help or hinder this objective. The words nurse, cook or mother refer to concrete concepts that help audiences relate to people in a way that the terms migrant, refugee or asylum seeker don’t.
Addressing people’s concerns also means presenting solutions as well as problems vis-a-vis migration-related issues. For Jara, reporting on problems faced by migrants should always lead to reporting on solutions found by migrants facing similar situations. This ‘journalism of solutions’ avoids the risk of media coverage that gives the impression of hopelessness.
Just as message’s content must be adapted to a specific audience, so the language used must also be meaningful. Too often, people of varying political views seem to speak a different language when referring to similar concepts. “Codify your message on the basis of the language of the people you’re trying to reach,” says Garzón.
For León, avoiding the use of certain words can be beneficial if these words have been overused or have gathered negative connotations. When reporting gender-related issues in the context of South America, for example, he will focus on human rights but avoid the terms “feminicide” and “patriarchy”. Similarly, there may be contexts in which telling the story of people on the move is more effective if we avoid describing them as migrants or refugees.
Use Technology and Data for Change
Migration communication’s long-term objective is the creation of a positive narrative. However, according to Jara, it is also vital to engage in a short-term fight against hate speech online. Maldita.es, for which Jara works, is an independent Spanish online platform that focuses on responding to disinformation through fact-checking and data journalism. The platform addresses a wide array of topics ranging from pseudoscience to feminism, but one-third of hoaxes that are brought to their attention are migration-related.
As the segmentation of social media increasingly traps audiences in echo chambers where their own biases are reaffirmed, maldita.es uses the same technologies to penetrate the said echo chambers. Through Whatsapp and an online application, people can send articles and statements that they encounter on their news feeds. They’ll then receive information about the veracity of the statement and whether it has been identified as a myth. A new inquiry triggers an investigation. Results can then be shared on the person’s feed, reaching the audience that spread the myth in the first place.
Responses to hoaxes will use the same language as the hoax itself, which allows them to be picked up similarly by online algorithms. The migration section of maldita.es is funded by Oxfam Intermón because “maldita.es has a much larger audience than Oxfam’s website,” says Garzón. Similar fact-checking websites are available in many countries and could be helpful to NGOs wishing to promote their message on migration beyond their metaphorical choir.
Oxfam’s Pablo Andrés Rivero Morales believes that another way to permeate otherwise unreachable audiences is to create unlikely partnerships with influencers. Not experts on the topic, but people with an online following who might not otherwise engage in the conversation on migration. “It could be the Youtuber who offers the recipe of the week and just says something about migration while they’re cooking,” he says.
He also believes that research on people’s reactions when certain emotions are triggered is a tool that can be used when thinking up new campaigns. Research conducted by Oxfam in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador showed that viewers exposed to sad communications on migration will feel empathy but won’t take action. However, if a viewer is touched because they judge the situation they witness to be unfair, the probability of them taking action increases.
Eva Garzón Hernández is the Global Displacement Lead at Oxfam Intermón in Spain. Pablo Andrés Rivero Morales is Oxfam’s Regional Policy and Narrative Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean region. José María León is the founder of the Ecuadorian online journalism platform GK and a contributor to various news sources including, the New York Times. Yuly Jara is a data journalist and fact-checker for the Spanish fact-checking platform maldita.es.