Dissemination of sound postcards on African migration produced by LMI Movida and IPAR in collaboration with the Epoukaye studio, with the support of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung, this Friday, April 16 at Novotel, Dakar from 09:30.
In a context marked by multiple international debates on migration, political and media discourses are often oriented towards African migrants. The latter are wrongly accused of being the most numerous in the migrations between the North and the South. In reality, more than 70% of African citizens move within Africa.
Despite statistics and research that show that migration of Africans is mainly intra-African, many « extraordinary measures » continue to be undertaken to externalize migration policies, to monitor borders to prevent African migrants from leaving for European countries. These restrictions define the current trend of migration governance in the African continent. Thus, the European Union is attempting to impose new borders to the south of its territory by restricting African populations in their migratory projects (Bredeloup, 2019).
In such a context, the LMI Movida, composed of researchers who have been working on migration issues for a long time, has engaged in a work of deconstruction of preconceived ideas on migration to bring the general public to a better understanding of migration issues but also to present decision-makers with a constructivist vision of these issues.
In this sense, LMI Movida, which has been working to deconstruct preconceived ideas about African migration through the development of postcards that broadcast messages that « slap down preconceived ideas » for several years, has collaborated with the Heinrich Boll Stiftung to implement a project aimed at setting up sound postcards. The idea is to make the message conveyed through research on intra-African migration more accessible.
This project entitled « Africa on the move » is carried out by IPAR on behalf of LMI-Movida. The project covers the regions of Dakar and Kédougou. The idea is that « African migration routes rarely lead to Europe ».
The main objective is to break down the prejudices surrounding African migration. It is a question of setting up a toolbox that will make it possible to show in a very meaningful and easily understandable way how the ideas that African migration is mainly directed towards the countries of the North are false. This project is an opportunity to valorize the results of research on internal and intra-African migration in order to facilitate advocacy with decision-makers, but also to raise awareness of migration issues and the inherent human rights and economic justice problems in the Senegalese public space. It also involves collecting relevant field data and formatting it to create effective advocacy tools.
After the work is completed, a phase of sharing the sound bites is planned with parliamentarians and journalists who are proving to be influential actors capable of bringing about a change in the behavior of policy makers. The workshop will be held on April 6, 2021 at the Novotel Hotel in a semi-virtual format with MPs and journalists.
OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP
The workshop will be a moment of sharing and discussion of the sound bites produced by the Movida-Ipar team in partnership with the studio Ëpoukay on the idea that « African migration routes rarely lead to Europe ».
The objectives of this session are as follows:
To share literature review notes and field evidence and sound bites on African migration;
To stimulate a debate between experts who wrote the notes and a limited audience of parliamentarians and journalists with or without experience in migration issues;
To make available the elements necessary for a better understanding of African migration in a context where there is talk of strong departures to Europe.
To listen to the sound clips against the preconceived ideas on migration:
