In the last decades, im/migration has become a hot and divisive topic in European countries and at the EU-level, being at the centre of strong and heated discussion among opposite political parties and attracting the media interest and attention.

Nevertheless, the way this complex issue is portrayed by and in the traditional and new media is often not accurate, leading to disinformation and misinformation and influencing the perception of the dimension and repercussions migration has in the European societies.

Among its research tasks, the EUMEPLAT project, funded under the Horizon 2020 Programme, has been studying the representation of two critical issues for the European identity, migration and gender, by analysing a vast data-set of online contents in the ten countries involved in the project, with the aim of investigating whether platformization is confirming or dismantling the existing stereotypes on these topics. A catalogue of best practices will be compiled and shared with decision-makers.

Three main dimensions have emerged from the research:

(1) Immigrants do not speak, they are spoken about. The first indication from the between country observation is crystal clear: when it goes down to immigrations, immigrants are always the object, rather than the subject. In all likelihood, best practices are to be searched for, which imply a positive role of immigrants in telling their own stories.

(2) Representation of immigration in social media is about territory – our territory. As a matter of fact, in social media debate the route of the immigrants is very short: they materialize, out of the blue, at the European borders. With their previous, exhausting journey put out of the picture, such representation would consolidate the idea of immigrants pushing at the European borders, and Europe eventually being the victim of the process (based on the invasion stereotype). How to give justice to the immigrants’ stories, in a way that would respect the geographical proportions of the process? Statistically speaking, we know that the huge majority of refugees and immigrants resettle in the countries of the Global South – but how to build a narrative around that?

(3) Representation of immigration is about people – not person. With the exception of crime stories, representation of immigrants is all about their collective body. Not accidentally, we rarely see them in close-up pictures – normally, we have a long-shot or a medium-shot of a bunch of them. In such a way, what we lose is their personal identity: the plain fact that any immigrant has an individual story, made of friendship and pain, preferences and flaws, like anybody else.

The conference is the occasion to bring together the different actors playing a role in the immigration representation in the Euro-Mediterranean region, namely the European and national institutions, the international organisations working on the issue, the academia, the media and audiovisual practitioners and the civil society. Starting from the three dimensions above-mentioned, the speakers will exchange on how to develop a new storytelling about migration and its impact on the European identity and culture and define a road map and policy recommendations.