Our Elections, Our Europe! aims to engage young people around an issue crucial to the 2014 European Elections – migration, and the importance of fighting xenophobic speech and promoting inclusive attitudes around this. The project responds to the concerning rise in xenophobic attitudes and statements by politicians in these three countries, and addresses the danger that such attitudes are having growing traction among young people, in the context of unemployment, lack of opportunities and disillusion with traditional politics.
The project “Our Elections, our Europe” is to raise awareness of and counter xenophobic politics around the time of European (and other) elections, to promote positive messages about migration that counter misinformation spread by extremist politicians and to engage young people active in the social media sphere, in being aware of misrepresentation of migration by extremist politicians and in discussing and promoting positive views of migration.
Key Project Activities:
All countries:
- Media monitoring to identify discriminatory discourse against migrants and ethnic minorities by politicians and other figures, which can influence public opinion during the run-up to the local, national, and European elections.
- Social media campaign as a mobilisation tool for the young people that the project is targeting
- Article production of positive stories that counter the claims and attitudes of xenophobic politicians
- Dedicated project website to disseminate key outputs by the national partners, using the project social media accounts, and to have trans-national support, discussion and collaboration.
Greece:
- Video and radio stories that bring together the views of both migrants and Greek-ethnicity residents of similar areas of the cities, to talk about the same topic, in each audio/video story
Hungary:
- Satirical cartoons and humorous caricature to expose negative rhetoric and ridiculous claims by politicians
- Official complaint to the Editors’ Forum whenever media monitoring reveals any offensive or defamatory content against migrants that violates the Editors’ Forum’s code of ethics
Italy:
- Theatre laboratories to make puppets of different dimensions and with different techniques
- Six street performances all across the city of Milan, using migrants’ own stories, satire and humour as direct responses to cases of xenophobic statements from politicians
- Video production of labs and performances, and dissemination through the web
Region/country: Greece, Hungary, Italy
Timeframe/dates: February 2014 – May 2014
Funder: Open Society Foundations
Partners: Symβiosis, Center for Independent Journalism, CivilMédia, Il Razzismo è una brutta storia
