Launching the Reframing Migration Toolkit

Events

On December 3, 2018, we celebrated the launch of the Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit with an event for partners, supporters and Narrative Change Lab participants. The Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit is a free online resource to help pro-migrant advocates develop emotionally smart, targeted messages and campaigns which can rebalance the migration debate in favour of inclusion and diversity. It was developed as a key outcome of the Reframe the Debate! Project1 (2017-2019).

The toolkit aims to support campaigners and activists in the challenging circumstance in which they find themselves – where they feel they are losing hearts and minds in the public debate on migration, while populist narratives gain ground and set the agenda of what is acceptable in policy terms. Instead of just responding to an anti-migrant agenda and getting stuck in that framing, the toolkit helps activists build positive, resonant narratives that engage challenging audiences. In doing so, it can help activists to ‘change the weather’, or put differently the context and framing, of the migration debate.

The launch of the toolkit was a major milestone in the Reframe the debate! New migration narratives for constructive dialogue project and we were delighted to have over 40 event participants.

We began with input from project partners from the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the Social Change Initiative (SCI). Tanja Florath, Representative from the Integration Unit of the Ministry, greeted participants with inspiring words on the necessity of changing the rhetoric on migration and integration in Germany.

Annmarie Benedict from SCI expressed gratitude and excitement to be part of the development of such an instructive and dynamic toolkit, with the purpose to assist progressive campaigners working to put diversity and inclusion back on the public agenda.

Lisa Quinn and Eóin Young from ICPA then shared the background to developing the toolkit, placing it in the broader context of the lessons learned from the Narrative Change Lab thus far.

Lisa and Eóin shared 5 top lessons:

There’s untapped potential in the middle – this group is currently reached much better by right-wing populists and this is where the debate can be won as they make up a large proportion of the population.
We need new frames – the mainstreaming of anti-migrant narratives has happened quickly, while positive migration narratives of ‘tolerance’ and ‘humanitarianism’ are losing their traction for those in the middle.
Heart before Head – referencing work of Marshall Ganz, it’s important to engage the emotions and tap into resonant values, bringing middle audiences to the table making space to have more challenging conversations.
Capacity building is vital – the Lab created a safe context for experimenting, learning and empowering activists with new campaigning methods and more of this needed.
We need the international network – not only is there much to learn from international practice, but we need many organisations, working across European countries, going beyond single campaigns to shift narratives at scale.

Through a panel discussion, we then heard from Lab participants Sami Rauscher, Anil Altintas, Alice Lanzke and Nasiha Ahyoud about their experiences in developing two campaigns: Deutsch Plus’ “Original Nürnberg” campaign and JUMA’s “Together Human” (gemeinsam menschlich) campaign. They talked about the challenges of getting to know the “movable middle” and reflected on the shift they made from fact-checking to storytelling and using humour to engage audiences. This was followed by Open Space to allow us to explore the draft slogans and posters from both of the campaigns, and hear directly from campaigners about the results of the message testing.

As the Reframing Migration Toolkit features cases from the campaigning practice of British Future, we invited their Director, Sunder Katwala, to share his experience of strategic communications in the migration debate. Sunder was also an advisory committee member for the project, so knows our work well. He talked about what British Future (in partnership with HOPE not hate) learned from one of the biggest ever public consultations on immigration in the UK – the National Conversation on Immigration2 – in which 90 citizens panels with middle audiences were convened all over the UK. He outlined the consensus among middle audiences in the UK regarding certain aspects of migration and the value to campaigners of having such rich qualitative insights, which even allow local tailoring of narratives.

We then heard from another campaign case in the toolkit – Community Art Center Mannheim. Artistic Director Annette Dorothea Weber and the Artist duo ILLIG & ILLIG spoke of a new project called Right: ex and pop – A proclamation for democracy, which is a theatre performance designed to begin a discussion about challenging issues. We were privileged to have the Rumours Kitchen specially installed for us and received a live demonstration of how negative rumours and stories can be transformed into delightful and colourful plates of food, to be eaten, enjoyed and digested and create an immersive experience that allows for reflection and reconsideration.

The full agenda from the event is available here.