This article argues for clear definitions of 'migrants' and 'migration' to better inform public debate and counter misconceptions.
In this paper, we want to argue why we, from the perspective of social designers, think that we need uniform and clear definitions of what migrants and migration are, to give a framework to the public debate. Since the terms ‘migrant’, ‘emigrant’, and ‘immigrant’ are heavily charged and bring their own sets of misconceptions, they can be used to fuel and direct the public debate in any direction; mainly, in an anti-migration path.
The auto-ethnographic investigation of our migratory experiences helped map outour movements and simultaneously revealed different challenges when trying to assign a term to our migration practices.
The semi-structured interviews without design adaption were an excellent start tounderstanding the participant’s background. However, we would need to expandour pool of interviewees for further research.
Probing allowed the participants to explore more in-depth topics about the feelingof home and their perception of the terms ‘migrant’, ‘emigrant’, and ‘immigrant’.Our presence as facilitators allowed us to dig deeper into the participant’s ideasand opinions.
Through creative, exploratory, and experimental methods, we tapped into the differentopinions of our participants. This systematic comparison was a good pathfor us and enabled this research to highlight a gap in the perception of the terms‘migrant’, ‘emigrant’, and ‘immigrant’. In addition, the insights collected during thisinvestigation, primarily through the probing, added layers of complexity that weshould have considered at the beginning of our research.
Fiorenza Scarpa
Larissa Berghofer
INTRODUCTION
The definitions of migrant, emigrant, and immigrant, by their very nature, are each a general description of an individual in the process of leaving, moving, and arriving – an interchangeable delineation if seen from the geographic location of origin, transit, and departure.
According to the United Nations (1998), a migrant is “A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence fora period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence. From the perspective of the country of departure, the person will be a long-term emigrant and from that of the country of arrival, the person will be a long-term immigrant.”
The reasons behind the moving process are many and include every type of individual in our society. Students, workers, or families that continuously move around the globe can be considered and defined as migrants, but do we perceive ourselves as such? What elements contribute to the idea and comprehension of migrants, and why do we perceive people that could be defined under the same term differently?
Our perspective and personal experience as international students moving to Denmark for (atleast) two years gave us the initial elements to compare our perception of the terms ‘migrant’, ‘emigrant’,and ‘immigrant’. We could be classified as such,but we would not necessarily define our experience under the terms of migration/migrant because of our perception of those terms. With this paper, we aim to analyze the terms to navigate the topic of ‘migration’,arguing that a lack of universal and accepted definitions leads to incorrect and unfounded perceptions of the migration movement to and out of Europe.
This research started with the acknowledgment that migration flows have been central in the European public debate in the last decade, affecting different aspects that constitute the fabric of our society. Migrants and migration are influencing the world in its political and economic structure, altering the perception of safety and integration, opening to and, at the same time, closing off new cultures. The so-called“refugee crisis” has deep roots in Europe’s recent history but became a concern of the European Union only in 2015 (Pawel, Roland, 2018). However, even if irregular migration is the pivot of public debate and starter point of tensions both within and between countries, irregular migrants who access the European Union constitute only a tiny fraction of the migration movement in and outside Europe. In 2020, a total of 1.9million first residence permits were issued in the EU, and in the same year, “only”125,100 individuals illegally crossed Europe’s borders (European Commission,2021).
Even if present and active for several years, the debate about illegal migration on a public platform is held with superficial knowledge regarding terms that define migrants and individuals. The media coverage of migration and the political discourse feeds the perception of a crisis. Politicians and media often discuss migration in the context of border controls, illegal migration, or human trafficking (Bigo,2002; Buonfino, 2004; Huysmans, 1995, 2000, as cited in Ricklef et al., 2007).
Both politicians and citizens often confuse and blur terms such as “migrants”, “asylum seekers”, and “ethnic minorities”, creating an unclear context around migration and migrants, feeding tensions into our societies and increasing feelings of insecurity and fear among the general public (Ricklef et al., 2007).
Our research explores how these terms, often misused and confused, are perceived by the same people who can be defined as migrants, investigating how they define themselves and if they feel represented by the existing definitions.Through design methods, we will highlight the gap between migration terms and their perception, discussing whether there is a need for more fluid definitions that could improve the quality of public debate.
