BRIDGES: Assessing the production and impact of migration narratives is a project funded by the H2020 EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and implemented by a consortium of 12 institutions from all over Europe.
The project aims to understand the causes and consequences of migration narratives in a context of increasing politicisation and polarisation by focusing on six European countries: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. To do so, BRIDGES adopts an interdisciplinary and co-productive approach and is implemented by a diverse consortium formed by universities, think tanks and research centres, cultural associations, and civil society organisations.
Building BRIDGES between:
- Areas of knowledge and methodologies, by adopting an interdisciplinary research approach and involving experts from disciplines as diverse as Political Science, Media Studies, Sociology, History, and Social Psychology.
- The different stages in the development of migration narratives, analysing them from the production process to their impact on policymakers, individuals and migrants, who in turn become narrative producers themselves.
- Research and practice, by involving researchers, policymakers, cultural associations, journalists, civil society organisations and migrant communities in the activities of the project and in the co-production of alternative narratives.
Addressing migration narratives at three levels:
Academic
Analysing why some migration narratives become dominant over others in public and political debates from a historical perspective, as well as how these narratives impact: individual attitudes towards migration in Europe, potential migrants’ decisions in countries of origin and transit, and policy decisions at the EU and national levels. The
project also aims to analyse how individuals and policymakers become themselves narrative producers and how they influence each other. As a result, BRIDGES will publish a series of Working Papers, academic articles, and other outreach publications.
Policy
Fostering evidence-based policy decisions through policy recommendations. BRIDGES
develops a typology of government strategies to respond to populist narratives and provides policymakers with recommendations on how to redress a tendency towards
increasingly symbolic policies in the field of migration and integration. This goal is to be achieved through a series of participatory events with policymakers and by producing Policy Briefs on the impact of narratives on potential migrants’ decisions in countries of origin and transit, and on policymaking at the EU and national levels.
Societal
Creating spaces of dialogue between the actors involved in narrative production. The aim is to foster the exchange of good and innovative practices on how to build alternative migration narratives among cultural entities, the civil society, and migrant
communities. To this end, BRIDGES is producing a toolkit for civil society organisations and co-organises a series of dissemination activities targeted at these groups. The most relevant of these being: an itinerant photo-journalism exhibition and a two-fold mural painting and hip-hop music contest to reflect on the challenges of multicultural and diverse societies.
All these activities are enhanced by a dynamic communications strategy, involving an ambitious presence in social media and media outlets, as well as the production of a series of videos, podcasts and infographics on the project’s activities and outputs. The project also adopts a gender perspective in the analysis of migration narratives, as well as in all its activities under the guidance of the BRIDGES’ Gender Observatory.
