Reframing Migration

“We hope the collective effort behind this report can provide an alternative to the dominant political narrative. Global citizens from around the world with roots in Afghanistan, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kurdistan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Seychelles, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, The Netherlands, Tanzania and the United Kingdom, have shared invaluable perspective, contributions and inspiration. Thankyou.

M.O. AKA The Dream holds the “hope of arriving in my home, where my tears are my own”. Until the wars are over and people are able to return in peace to the lands of their birth, this extended community will continue to welcome, building bridges across borders and friendships that will last a lifetime.”
— Reframing Migration, 2016

In 2016 a Reframing Migration workshop was held in London to better understand migration as social innovation and "start thinking about interactions with refugees as collaboration, rather than a form of charity, and what that would achieve", Alina Muller, Silent University.

The Reframing Migration workshop was a collaborative initiative between Social Innovation Lab Kent at Kent County Council, the University of the Arts London and Professor Ezio Manzini's Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Network. The findings were reported into the South East Strategic Network for Migration Practitioners. The workshop explored positive practices of migration as social innovation - where people from resident and migrant communities were living, working and collaborating together with positive outcomes for the whole of society.

“The Reframing Migration initiative demonstrates how it is possible to co-create a community where migration is social innovation, where “people on the move” are welcomed and collaborate as equals, generating value for everyone. Reframing Migration gives a theoretical framework with foundations in reason and inspiration from humanity, demonstrating that by learning from each other we will find more similarities than differences, that enable us to live well together. ”
— Reframing Migration, 2016
Mazi Mas, Reframing Migration caterers, a roaming restaurant serving global home cooking in the heart of London

Mazi Mas, Reframing Migration caterers, a roaming restaurant serving global home cooking in the heart of London

Initially the need to provide an alternative dialogue was raised by a Community Development worker in East Kent, who identified an increased risk of community tensions in the summer of 2015. A collaborative workshop was developed - building on the Cultures of Resilience programme at the University of the Arts London - aiming to view migration with a fresh perspective, through a positive lens. 

As a volunteer in the Calais camps, and actively involved in welcoming refugees into the UK, Emma was able to ensure the Reframing Migration initiative was grounded in real life and the current context. Her priority was to find ways for people’s voices to be represented and heard even if they could not physically be there in person.

Poster from the Good Chance tent in Calais in 2016

The event opened with The Calais Sessions’ recording of women singing in their Church the night before its destruction by the authorities in the camp. A feast of Injera was served to all the participants, prepared by Ethiopian Chef Azeb Woldemichael at Mazi Mas, a pioneering social enterprise employing women displaced by conflict.

This piece of work reinforced Emma’s view that food was a key to bringing people together, to participate, to engage, to interact, to form genuine relationships; a catalyst to enable people to start listening to each other, even if their lived experiences may mean they were as yet unable or had chosen not to speak.

From January 2017 Emma continued the Reframing Migration work in Scotland. Below are the slides she used for a workshop at the Social Work Action Network Conference in collaboration with IRISS, held in Middlesbrough in April 2017.

In 2017 the humanKINDER team launched a journey across Europe with The Welcome Tent inspired by the theories and relationships strengthened during the Reframing Migration work. The Welcome Tent was a repurposed army catering tent where the Happiness All Around crew - whose first members met in Calais in 2015 - could continue cooking together. After the first outing at the Hythe Life Food Festival in Kent in 2016, a 16,000 mile trip took The Welcome Tent through twelve countries ending in Greece in 2018. All the dishes cooked and shared in The Welcome Tent are currently being woven into a publication called Recipes of HOPE which will be used to challenge injustice and rebuild a more equitable and humanKINDER world.