About us
Who we are
Migrants of the Mediterranean (MotM) is an Humanitarian Storytelling NGO documenting the individual Journey Stories of the world’s most impoverished and vulnerable people, first in Lampedusa, Italy, and now across Europe. The organization’s Humanitarian Storytelling methodology is a hybrid of humanitarianism, journalism and contemporary history creating an immediate and ongoing impact for participants in its migrant community.
Why we exist
When Migrants of the Mediterranean began interviewing people in the migrant community in 2016, we were struck by their need to connect. The encounters happened upon their arrival on Lampedusa island in Sicily, after they’d been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, and after enduring extraordinary violence, abuse and exploitation in Libya, and elsewhere on their journeys. For many people it had been weeks, months, maybe even years since they had been greeted in a safe environment. Most had just escaped arbitrary detention, prison, and in some cases, slavery. The wounds on their bodies were often not yet healed.
In the news in Europe and in the United States, on the other hand, we had been taught to fear the newcomers at the borders. To see them as invaders and criminals. To see them as abstract, faceless crowds on boats. Not, in short, as people with experiences—and stories.
What was revealed then was a need for a new kind of humanitarianism that would express as much personal, human connection (a kind of “compassion triage”) as it would create authentic documents of this valuable time in history. Humanitarian Storytelling was born. This method would take the dehumanizing institution of a news headline that reads, “X migrants arrive in Lampedusa, Italy,” and ask: Who are they? And then answer it.
The people in this community have traveled in irregular, distressed and inequitable ways that many of us will never undergo. That is our privilege. And that means it is also our duty to humanize the vulnerable and impoverished people who do not share our same fate; to extend ourselves as people who insist that no one is worth less than us; and to share a platform where the voices and stories of the people who are silenced and victimized may be empowered, dignified, and maybe even healed.
We have documented over 100 stories in the Journey Story Archive of people in the migrant community. These are Journey Stories and extended profiles of people who we still know from those first days on Lampedusa in 2016. And further, the work has expanded to represent communities beyond Italy, in countries all across Europe and at the US-Mexico border zone, setting precedent for Migrants of the Mediterranean’s global reach. As long as vulnerable people are on the move in ways we would never accept for ourselves, the work of Humanitarian Storytelling goes on.
Methodology
The Humanitarian Storytelling methodology has three steps:
Encounter and documentation
Our first meeting; we encounter vulnerable people, introduce ourselves and put the first spotlight on their experiences. Until this point, people may have only been silenced, exploited, abused or marginalized; the meeting is a breakthrough for people to connect. With consent to participate, we record step one in their personal migration narrative, the Journey Story.
These encounters frequently take place at points of arrival or landing post-rescue (e.g. Lampedusa island), but may also happen after the fact.
1.
First followup and
update
Another breakthrough moment. Life for those in the migrant community in the immediate months, or even years, after rescue or arrival is often defined by isolation. When we arrive to meet people in their new place of residence as their asylum cases proceed, people feel a wave of hope and belonging, they understand we are at their side in an ongoing way; we document an update, a “reunion story,” on their environment, life, and the challenges of existing in a still-foreign place.
2.
Ongoing reunions,
updates in perpetuity
Trust is firmly established. We maintain contact with our community participants, meaning, wherever people go, we follow.
The intimacy developed over the months and years of these shared encounters gives MotM direct access to the issues those in the migrant community face after arrival or rescue, including navigating asylum procedures and other legal issues; housing, labor, education and language, mental health and issues in numerous other areas related to integration and wellbeing.
3.
Programming
There are three areas of our programming:
Documentation
Expand our encounters and create new documentation of Journey Stories. We do this through a team of national or regional correspondents, and with the support of local fixers to make new connections when circumstances require it.
Advocacy
Create immediate and long-term change for our community and the migrant community at large, based on our documentation, by leveraging the partnership or support of key figures in specialized areas of advocacy, from diplomacy to scholarship to tactical initiatives with NGOs.
Preservation
Institute and manage a permanent archive to preserve the moments of encounter that we capture in written stories, photographs, and audio or video recordings for public research, and to provide unique ancestral files for participating individuals in the MotM migrant community.
In short, we create a space for marginalized people’s experiences for the historical record that are otherwise forgotten.
Humanitarian Storytelling work may continue indefinitely. Ongoing updates with current participants ensure our longevity (as long as they consent to stay in touch, are alive, etc.), as do invitations to new migrant community members who may join as we expand to other geographical areas of coverage.
Humanitarian Storytelling is geographically agnostic. Although our work began in the Central Mediterranean region and Europe, the methodology can be applied in any of the shifting geographical hotspots where human movement is happening, or is on the rise. Regions we envision expanding our work include, for example, Colombia-Venezuela, Ukraine-Europe, and any other area on earth where humans are on the move in irregular, distressed or inequitable ways.
Impact
The migrant experience for impoverished and vulnerable people is defined by insecurity and trauma, and regularly leaves them isolated and unseen on the margins of society. Instead, Humanitarian Storytelling helps dignify the experiences of vulnerable people in the migrant community by way of compassionate encounter and documentation in effort of a more complete historical record since 2016.
Because our methodology enables us to move with the people in our community from first meeting into indefinite future points, we are able to develop textured portraits of their lived experiences and an expansive catalog of the issues they face therein. This is essential information that drives migration scholarship, informs diplomatic and policy efforts, enables tactical support via partnering organizations, and finally is preserved as a unique ancestral record for the very people who count themselves a part of the MotM migrant community.