The ITHACA project addresses one of the main challenges of contemporary societies: migration. The forced and voluntary mobility of migrants and refugees dominate the political debate and agenda at a global level. Socially, they have redefined entire societies, opening up fractures and opportunities, and putting to test national codes of belonging. Migrant and refugee voices and narratives have often been undervalued by governments and international and local institutions, even by humanitarian agencies. Collecting, preserving, and giving value to migrant and refugee stories – as individuals, families, and communities – is the very first step to promote politics of relief, empowerment, inclusion and participation. In this effort, past and present meet and confront themselves in order to create effective and durable migration flows management, as well as welcoming and integration policies.
Moving away from an emergency response model, the EU-funded ITHACA project focuses on migration narratives by creating a novel digital tool, the ITHACA platform, intending to feature past and present migration narratives as well as media tools and applications for researchers, policymakers, practitioners and migrants.
Doing so, ITHACA provides a significant impact on European and non-European societies. Bringing together partners from Europe, Africa, Eurasia and the Middle East, the project intends to raise awareness, inform the public debate, and disseminate recommendations to improve policies, empowerment, inclusion and participation.
This societal purpose is part of the main project goals. Based on a consortium involving 11 partners from origin, transit and host migration countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Eurasia, the ITHACA project focuses on past and present migration narratives, analysing them in a rigorous historical framework, whilst adopting an interdisciplinary, comparative and transnational approach. The project main objectives are: 1) to provide a long-term multi-layered historical appraisal (global, oral, digital, gender, socio-economic, and religious), with an archival focus on the collection and preservation of endangered migrant records; 2) to develop the analysis of the multiple and contrasting forms taken by narratives on migrations; 3) to promote attentive listening and interpretation of expectations and experiences of migrants themselves. Through archival surveys, research-action, and participatory, artistic and training activities, the ITHACA project deepens the various forms of narratives on and by migrants, considering them as agents of social change, retracing causes, transformations, and effects of migration narratives, and highlighting silenced voices. Finally, ITHACA stakeholder engagement activities interconnect scholars, archivists, museum curators, practitioners, NGOs, returnees and potential migrants. These actions intend to raise awareness, inform the public debate, and disseminate thoughtful recommendations for present and future policies of relief, empowerment, inclusion and participation.
