One Migrating World
artwork: “One World” by Maya Lavda
“Migration: A notion rather vague as it usually brings to our minds a permanent change. In its broader definition, however, the term migration includes various kinds of movements. From the seasonal trips of workers within a country to the movement and settlement of refugees from one country to another. Migration is something big, something imposing. It’s the Exodus from Egypt, the Odyssey, the Descent of the Myriads. It’s the ships of the Vikings that were riding the waves heading to Iceland. It’s the ships, full of slaves, the civil wars, the secret movements of Jewish refugees during WW2. It’s the 60 million Europeans who left the continent between the 16th and the 20th century. It’s the not so peaceful population exchange of 15 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims between India and Pakistan in 1947, when the Indian Peninsula was divided in states”
( National Geographic, vol1, no1, p.65- Greek Edition).
How is it possible that such a natural phenomenon for the human species to be considered today so frightening and dangerous? Why migration is perceived as something so negative when seen from the perspective of the receiving country? Why, for the people who are leaving, besides the difficulties they know they will face, it represents the hope for a better future?
“I will go to America”, our grandparents used to say. And they went. Some were successful in their seeking of a better life, others were not. No matter if signs on the entrance doors of many shops were constantly reminding them how not welcome they were – “No Rats, no Greeks”. Many of our grandparents along with their children and grandchildren are still there. Others -fewer- returned to their homeland. For those who stayed though, those signs no longer exist. For those who returned, it’s in the hands of their grandchildren -our hands- to listen to their stories.
The One Migrating World Campaign narrates the stories of real people. People like us. People who left their homeland to study or to work or because they wanted it or because they fell in love, or because they were forced. Stories of children, who were raised between countries and cultures and are the most beautiful and inspiring “consequence” of migration.