Humans have been on the move in search of livelihood since the beginning of human existence, and yet the media can’t seem to get its reporting on vulnerable migrants quite right.
As states and individuals struggle to recover from the global economic crisis, human beings find greater cause to go out in search of something missing – in most cases, the opportunity to work and earn a living.
The International Organisation for Migration puts the total number of migrants at 214 million people, which is about three percent of the population.
While the crisis has created greater reason to move, at the same time there is a force pulling in the opposite direction: some nations have clammed up in tougher economic times, as exemplified by the growing popularity of nationalistic parties in Western Europe.
Migration is at the top of political agenda and journalists have a role to play in how the migration discourse plays out in public. At the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum on Monday, a panel discussion was held on how the media portrays what are considered the most vulnerable migrants: victims of human trafficking, refugees and other marginalised migrant workers.
Larry Rich, an American producer and writer who has reported extensively on migrants in Latin America, said that even after 30 years’ experience, “I am still uncertain of our success as journalists by making [migrants] vulnerable. Even our best attempts to document the oppressed are just our voices speaking on their behalf.
“We are the voice of the voiceless because we have our hands over their mouths.”
Rich argued that there is rarely probing into why people decide to leave their homes – rather, smuggling and prostitution conjure up sensational images which are much simpler for journalists, and more restricting for their subjects.
“Humanising the statistics is an insurmountable challenge, but behind these numbers are people.”
Karen Kesawathany Arukesamy a Malaysian journalist from the The Sun newspaper, focused her presentation on Asian media’s portrayal of migrant workers, which she said were presented as weak victims “at the mercy of someone or desperate for something”.
Rich said he deliberately avoids the term ‘victim’ – he wants the migrants in his stories to be “protagonists capable of change”, while Lori Brumat, Head of Communications at the International Catholic Migration Commission in Geneva, said, “I hate ‘vulnerable’! I don’t like that buzzword.”
Brumat explained that NGOs and the media rely on each other and come up against the same problem: the multiplication of man-made and natural disasters means that NGOs need to be able to adapt to aid’s “increasing insignificance” with more issues and less funding creating an overall media fatigue.
She gave one example of a successful Amnesty International campaign designed to personify refugees and suggested journalists could use this form of representation too.
By Vanessa Ellingham, New Zealand
Photo by Michele Lapini, Italy
