GFMD side event underlines the importance of promoting positive narratives in a time of pandemic response and recovery, reaching the “moveable middle” and prioritizing the dimension of race.
The side event It Takes a Community: Building a Global Movement to Balance the Narrative on Migration took place on the penultimate day of the 13th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit. It focused on the campaign It Takes a Community launched on 18 December 2020 as an initiative of the GFMD ad hoc Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration.
The campaign brings full circle discussion begun at the GFMD last year where there was a “real appetite to continue discussion on public narratives on migration,” said Alexandra Young, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, one of the governments co-chairing the ad hoc working group.
In a time of widespread polarization and misinformation, the campaign seeks to reach the “moveable middle” that research has shown exists in every community, said Marshall Patsanza, International Organization for Migration (IOM) – those who fall between fixed views on either end of the spectrum and can be moved to support positive narratives on migration. The initiative, which brings together governments and all GFMD stakeholders (civil society, local authorities, business representatives and youth), encourages trusted sources at all levels of the community to share stories about the positive impact migration has had in their respective context.
The multi-stakeholder campaign “showcases the strength of the GFMD as a space for collective action,” said Clara Keller-Skupien, GFMD Civil Society Coordinating Office. She highlighted that during its GFMD preparatory meeting, the civil society mechanism had named combatting toxic narratives and xenophobia as one of its top priorities. Organizations from all over the world were invited to join the campaign during its soft launch, which was promoted during an online civil society program organized for International Migrants Day last December.
“The conversation on narratives on migration really is about all of us – individually and collectively.”
Clara Keller-Skupien, GFMD Civil Society Coordinating Office
The campaign is crucial as the global community responds to the COVID-19 pandemic and considers recovery strategies, Keller-Skupien said. Balanced narratives that focus on the wellbeing of all of society – including migrants – are needed to help ensure access to vaccines and prevent migrants from being seen as a public health threat.
Keller-Skupien underlined that the campaign can serve as an important channel to address not only the narratives themselves but root, structural causes of xenophobia and inequalities as well. Here, she said, it is essential to prioritize the dimension of race. She shared an open call to all of the GFMD to join in the discussions on race and migration that the Civil Society Action Committee is planning in the coming year. The hope is to discern pathways to implement the It Takes a Community initiative. Side event moderator Hannah Murphey (IOM) added that the campaign can serve as a platform to support migrants in denouncing discrimination and racism.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Diego Morejon, representing the second of the GFMD narratives working group co-chairs, noted that the campaign is a “construct to transmit positive messages” and can be used to underline the slogan he has heard at this GFMD: “People Before Borders.”
Gabriella de Francesco, a city councilor from Mechelen, Belgium, representing the GFMD Mayors Mechanism, the third co-chair of the narratives working group, agreed with Morejon. It Takes a Community is a way to “walk the talk” with a positive narrative of being for diversity, of being one community with the same future, she said.
Keller-Skupien affirmed this whole-of-society approach: “The conversation on narratives on migration really is about all of us – individually and collectively.” Migrants are not only in need of support; they are “actors of change, entrepreneurs and leaders, part of communities and societies.”
She also emphasized the transformative nature of participants’ engagement as migration advocates, pointing out, in the words of Eva Garzón Hernadez from Oxfam, that “every time we talk about migration, we shape the narrative.”
Murphey lifted up the “diversified” character of the campaign, which is unbranded so that it can be nuanced to tell stories and amplify actions in any community, at any level. Side event panelists and participants shared examples of how they were already adapting It Takes a Community, set to run for another 12 months, to their own contexts. Keller-Skupien concluded her remarks with an appeal to all GFMD entities to work together. “We [in civil society] hope we can actively collaborate with all of you to take these issues forward and promote balanced narratives for change, including on racism and as we look at recovery from COVID, collectively.”
Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash