Cafébabel tackles the question of migration up North
Published on
Translation by:
Kate Saunders-Puntis
The media and migration, at the forefront of European election campaigning, are also on Cafébabel’s agenda. Two of our journalists fly off for 5 days in Stockholm to attend Nordic Youth Media Days. The aim: to coach a team of youths on journalistic writing on the theme of the migration question.
Nearly two months before the major election, and the political field is more or less a mirror of a good part of the various national elections of recent years. Predictably, migration is a major theme of the European campaign of May 2019. Hope for an ecological spring is budding in the streets, but borders, sovereignty and security are the issues still firmly on the agenda.
As always, there is swell of worrying discourse in the air and flowing through the debates. In the meantime, thousands of shipwrecked people have been lost to the Mediterranean depths. 2277 in 2018 according to the figures released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And behind the arguments for security, there’s often a sense of xenophobia that pervades the rhetoric of politicians on the issue of borders.
See also: Helping refugees : The EU takes off running
The least we can say is that migration, often cloaked in disinformation, brings a lot of press attention, seldom for the better, and often for the worse. It’s a delicate subject. But we are no less convinced that it is necessary to talk about it, and to learn how to talk about it. This month, two of our journalists are off to Nordic Youth Media Days in Stockholm, for the seminar “More than one story – training for young media makers on diversity in reporting on migration”. From 19 to 24 March, Matthieu Amaré, journalist and lead editor of the French edition, and Ana Valiente, freelance journalist based in Madrid and long-time editor of the Spanish edition, will coach a team of youths about journalistic writing dealing with the theme of migration.
For this new event, organised by the Nordic Press Association, the aim is to invite selected Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian youths to examine the media’s treatment of the migration question. To better understand the current situation, journalists from the African continent will also be present.
Cafébabel has long been interested in the migration question. As one of the central themes of the magazine, immigration has been the object of numerous long reportages, of Who Cares pieces and letters to the editor. Often as not, at Cafébabel we make it our business to choose a positive treatment of the subject, to interrogate the alarmist discourse with news that aligns a bit better with the numbers. It’s journalism with impact, centred on humanity and dialogue that Matthieu and Ana are attempting to pass on to our Scandinavian friends. It’s also an opportunity to work towards growing the contributions from this northern part of Europe.
Another new beginning for Cafébabel. At any rate, an occasion for European cooperation on the theme of migration and to change the standard political climate. And this time, the keyword on journalistic practice will be diversity.
Cover photo: © Anni Savolainen
Translated from Cafébabel s'attaque à la migration par la face Nord