Several BRIDGES experts join the Conference of the Council for European Studies in Lisbon with a panel on the production of Narratives on Migration in Europe.

On June 29, 2022, several BRIDGES experts took part at the 28th International Conference of Europeanists, organised by the Council for European Studies in Lisbon, with a panel on Narratives on Migration in Europe. They presented some of the preliminary results of the research carried out under BRIDGES Work Package 3, on the production of migration narratives in the media arena; Work Package 4, on the promotion of innovative strategies against exclusionary narratives by civil society organisations, artistic communities, and citizens; and Work Package 6, on the impact of narratives promoted by the EU in the decisions of potential migrants in countries of origin and transit.

More specifically, Virginie Guiraudon and Hélène Thiollet, from Sciences Po, and Saskia Smellie, from the University of Edinburgh (UEDIN), discussed narratives on the UK-France border, focusing on media representations of responsibility for displaced people in Calais. For his part, Omar N. Cham, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), presented a paper based on the research carried out by the VUB team on EU-funded information campaigns targeting potential migrants in Africa, particularly in The Gambia. Finally, Bastian Vollmer, from the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz, focused his presentation on alternative voices on migration in Europe. The panel was chaired by Ferruccio Pastore, BRIDGES Scientific Co-Coordinator and Director of the Forum Internazionale ed Europeo di Ricerche sull’Immigrazione (FIERI).

This is one of the first flagship international conferences in which experts from different BRIDGES Work Packages and consortium members take part, thus emphasising the interdisciplinary approach of the project and its potential for academic outreach and exploitation.