Unpacking Narratives of Migration: Visual Approaches and Hopeful Engagements

Organizers: Berfin Nur Osso (berfin.osso@helsinki.fi), Ana Tarazona (ana.tarazona@tuni.fi), Adriana Calvo (adriana.calvoviota@tuni.fi) and Gintare Kudzmaite (gintare.kudzmaite@tuni.fi)

Time: Thursday 7.11. at 13.00-14.30 (Session 1) and 16.15-17.45 (Session 2)
Place: Linna K109

In the face of global turbulence and the resulting rise in human mobility, it is vital to explore innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to understanding and addressing the challenges faced by migrants. Transcending distinctions such as forced/voluntary, legal/irregular, internal/external migration, this panel seeks to explore how visual approaches can be utilized to unpack narratives of migration and empower marginalized individuals and communities to claim their political rights from the bottom up. By centering the experiences and voices of those directly experienced migration, we aim to challenge dominant discourses and amplify alternative narratives of longing, belonging, safety, and agency.

Topics may include:

1. The role of visual storytelling in representing the experiences of individuals and communities who have experienced displacement, exile, mobility, etc.;
2. Researcher positionality and reflexivity in visual approaches, their implications for knowledge production and ethical engagement;
3. Collaborative and participatory approaches to visual storytelling with migrants, including displaced communities;
4. The role of visual storytelling in challenging populist and nationalist discourses and reshaping public discourse on migration and minority rights;
5. Ethical considerations in using visual methods within migration research.

We welcome contributions from researchers, artists, activists, and practitioners working at the intersection of borders, migration, conflict, and visual studies. We encourage diverse perspectives and methodologies, including traditional academic presentations, visual exhibitions, film screenings, and interactive workshops. Our goal is to create a dynamic and inclusive space for dialogue and exchange that fosters new insights, collaborations, and strategies for building more hopeful futures amidst turbulent times.

Abstracts

Session 1

Aura Nikkilä, University of Turku: Compelling Encounters? Intermedial Elements in Migration-Themed Comics

Migration and migrants have been featured in comics throughout the history of the medium, but especially since the 1980s – with the rise of autobiographical comics as well as the formation of the genre of comics journalism – experiences of migration have become a central subject matter of the medium of comics. Comics is a distinctive form of narrative storytelling with a language of its own. In addition to the combination of visual and verbal elements, also the simultaneity and sequentiality of images are typical to the medium: the panels of comics function both in time and in space (Groensteen 2007). It can be argued that the spatio-temporal nature of comics makes it an apt form of expression for representing migration which is both a geographical and a historical phenomenon.

Due to the commingling of image and words, comics has been regarded intermedial per se (Rippl & Etter 2015). I am, however, interested in the intermediality of comics in a wider sense: in this presentation I will analyse the use of intermedial elements, such as photographs and maps, in migration-themed comics. Through different elements incorporated from other media to comics, such experiences of migrants as, for example, mobility, displacement, stasis, and un/belonging are further emphasised. Furthermore, I analyse how intermedial elements may also contribute to a meaningful and possibly even an empathetic encounter between the comic and the reader.

 

Laura Lamas Abraira, Dept. of Anthropology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): The other cartographies of Hong Kong: Exploring migrant domestic workers’ experiences and perceptions of the city through arts-based participatory research

Since the 1970s Hong Kong has been a primary destination for Southeast Asian female migrants. The foreign domestic workers (mainly Filipino and Indonesian) constitute the 4.5% of the HK population, even though they are largely exposed to very hard living and work conditions, often characterized by abuse and exploitation. These women are forced by law to live in their employer’s houses where they work between 12-18 hours a day and in most cases, they don’t have their own room or private space. On their day off (Sunday) they all go out driving to an intensive occupation of the public space across the city. This is particularly striking in the central area of the island, comprising the financial district, the most expensive and luxurious area of HK. Through an origin-based (country/region) spatialization, squares, sidewalks, parks, and walkways become full covered by camping tents, open umbrellas and cardboard boxes (often including self-made walls) which serve as a rug for picnicking, napping, singing karaoke or dancing, among many other activities; therefore, modifying the physical, social and cultural landscape of (Monday to Saturday) Hong Kong.

The relationship of these women and the city becomes mediated by the power (dis)continuities between the public and private spheres in a context in which both, the physical and symbolic dimensions of the space(s) matter. Based on a nine-months multimodal ethnography which includes among other visual methodologies the crafting of 30 mental-emotional cartographies through participatory inquiry, this presentation explores the potential of arts-based methods in: (1) creating unique spaces for emotionality, self-reflection and self-expression; and (2) to both decoding and representing intangible layers of the experience that remain unreachable to conventional methodological and text-centric representational models.

 

Letícia Simões, University of Porto: We, Malungas: a project on reimaging a world filled with heroines of the impossible

The WE, MALUNGAS project began as in-depth research into methods of female resistance to the Portuguese colonial slavery system in Brazil, focusing on technologies such as dance, music, desire and the narratives of our memory. From this initial research stories, documents, pictures, songs and photographs emerged into a 90 minute performance, uniting the familiar with the historical, intertwining today and forever.

The stories of WE, MALUNGAS are intertwined with a thought about the condition of black immigrant women today, in Portugal, through music and gastronomy, always thinking about the idea of a malunga identity, fluid, hybrid and potential. Built among and by black immigrant women (present) with resonances in the forgotten narrative of resistance by black women from the diaspora (past) aiming at other inscriptions in the world (future).

Malungo means “canoe” in the Bantu language, and it is the term designated in history for the symbolic operations that took place on the crossing of the slave ship, a very violent and demarcating journey. Forever and ever, from then on, subjectivity and corporality of these subjects that were part of this ship would be united, although they came from very different places. The idea of a malunga identity has to do with the complicity between trafficked souls; people coming from different contexts, who spoke different languages, who did not share the same rituals, but who, by experiencing the same violent experience, share, after leaving the crossing, a new language of life.

 

Turkan Firinci Orman, Department of Design, Aalto University: Navigating Citizenship as a Young Refugee: Studying Resilience through the ‘Cage’ Metaphor

This study deeply explores the relationship between lived and legal citizenship using the ‘Cage’ metaphor to highlight the complex dynamics faced by individuals whose sense of belonging and lived citizenship differ from formal legal definitions due to their refugee status. As such, the citizenship is understood both as emancipatory and dominating concept (Isin, 2024), as an apparatus of government.

Centred on the compelling story of Salma, a young Syrian refugee girl in Turkey, the research examines how she navigates these tensions with notable political presence, agency, and resilience amidst challenges such as racism, financial hardship, and systemic discrimination.

Utilizing a geosocial methodology combined with feminist geography and situational intersectionality, the study employs various research methods, including in-depth interviews and participatory techniques, to reveal Salma’s daily experiences and personal perspectives. By emphasizing Salma’s interpretive agency and creative self-empowerment, the study illustrates how she asserts her political presence in a complex socio-political environment, thus redefining traditional notions of citizenship while expressing her youthful identity. This research significantly enhances the understanding of youth political agency in refugee contexts, providing insights into the transformative power of creative agency and metaphorical analysis in reshaping societal views on citizenship.

Session 2

Isabel Arce Zelada, University of Hull: Desire-Led Methodologies: The Possibility of Anti-Colonial Research

This paper investigates the UK asylum system through observations in the court of appeal, co-interrogates the asylum process with people going through it via workshops centred on displaced knowledge, and through the creation of exhibited artworks disseminates this knowledge. By interrogating citizenship and borders, this arts-based methodology reveals the asylum process as a continuation of colonial practices that create a narrative inequality between the person seeking asylum and the nation-state.

Arts-based methods enabled counter-narratives, allowing people to revalue their desires as central to interrogating the violence of the asylum process that they experience. The desires each person expressed in their art revealed the dissonance between their lived experience and the human rights protections supposedly at the heart of the asylum system. A system professing to champion human rights but often unable or unwilling to uphold them. The hopes expressed in this project unlock questions of future alternative justices, and alternative governance, that have profound implications for how we understand the asylum system and the people subjected to it. A view beyond the suffering refugee that the nation-state demands, and a recovery of the futures that we envision as displaced people.

 

Gunika Rishi, NTNU, Norway: Future Imaginations: Visual expressions of hope and aspiration among Unaccompanied Refugee Minors

This paper presentation draws from the narrative interviews done in three municipalities in Norway with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URMs). The results from the empirical work are used as a framework of designing an interactive visual workshop: “Imagining Futures”. By using crafts and collage, participants would be encouraged to depict their imaginations for their future, revealing a rich tapestry of hopes and dreams that conjure up images of their individual journeys and aspirations which are both vivid and vital. Visual methods are used to overcome the limitations of language in expressing their aspirations and disengage from the stereotypical perceptions often associated with young refugees, revealing their unique aspirations and perspectives through visuals. The workshop would focus on the resilience, creativity, and potential of the young individuals and then employ photo elicitation techniques to capture and reflect on their artwork, facilitating deeper conversations about their personal stories, experiences, and future goals. The results are expected to demonstrate ways in which visual art can serve as a powerful medium for URMs to express their identities and ambitions. The creations and subsequent conversations would allow to delve deeper on their unique perspectives but also reveal their worries and challenges. These insights underscore the importance of validating and empowering the voices of these young individuals. This approach can inform future support programs aimed at fostering the emotional, social, and practical development of refugee youth, helping them navigate the complexities of their new environments and work towards their envisioned futures.

 

Katarzyna Kärkkäinen, University of Jyväskylä: Co-creating knowledge on migrant students’ learning at work

Authors: Katarzyna Kärkkäinen (JYU), Päivi Tynjälä (JYU), Maarit Virolainen (JYU) and Anne Virtanen (JYU)

This paper focuses on presenting preliminary results from the study of migrant students’ learning at the workplace in the Finnish vocational education and training (VET) context. In VET, learning at work is an important part of study and workplaces are seen as an important arena for learning in relation to working life practices. In the context of migrant students’ learning processes, these benefits of learning at work have been highlighted. However, many limitations to migrant learning in the workplace have been identified. In order to gain a better understanding of the benefits and barriers of learning for migrants in the workplace, we conducted collaborative research in one of the vocational institutes in Finland. The collaborative study involved working with one of the migrant groups studying on the practical nursing programme, including participating in study days and facilitating narratives of workplace learning through creative inquiry, observing three students in their workplaces, taking photographs at students’ workplaces and interviewing students, teachers and workplace supervisors. Co-creative and collaborative research practices enabled students, workplace supervisors and teachers to reflect on issues relevant from a workplace learning perspective, such as negotiating student and workplace supervisor roles and expectations, workplace encounters and growth as health and social care professionals. The action-research nature of the study allowed those involved in the study to reflect on how to improve the collaboration between the institute and the workplaces and how to better support the learning of migrant students. There were also signs of thinking about taking concrete action.

 

Phevos Simeonidis, Durham University, SGIA / DGSi: Belated sensing: Visual approaches and the research of human rights violations in the Greek-Turkish borderlands (and beyond)

During the past decade, an array of visual methodologies are employed by researchers and activists alike to investigate and raise awareness about human rights violations in the Greek-Turkish land and sea border areas. Ranging from collective expulsions (pushbacks) to enforced disappearances, and from detention to border deaths, these illegal practices are transforming both EU’s policy towards migration, but also the border zones themselves.

These changes, traceable through visual investigations, or reconstruct-able through the use of situated testimony methodologies and with the help of visual cues, are often at the core of emerging methods in migration and peace & conflict research.

This paper seeks to explore three case studies relevant to the Greek-Turkish border zone of Evros, Greece, presenting alternate vantage points in each one of them. The first, through an investigation via satellite imagery of how the border area is changing and how that is affecting the routes that asylum seekers follow, and the relation of this transformation with the necropolitical landscape. The second, concerns the use of visual cues and descriptions as they emerge through participatory mapping exercises on the field or remotely, in an attempt to locate spaces of arbitrary detention and/or torture in the area. Finally, the third concerns the ways in which such research has been presented in the public domain, focusing on previous work of the author with agencies such as Forensic Architecture in an attempt to unpack some of the ethical considerations accompanying such research.