The E-MINDFUL project: What is the stocktaking exercise?

By Teresa Albano, E-MINDFUL Project Manager

As the project unfolds, read what we are working on.

Historia magistra vitae: this is one of the famous quotes from Cicero's “De Oratoria”. As the famous Roman orator and lawyer pointed out, drawing lessons from the past should enable to direct and improve our lives, avoiding repeating the same mistakes over again.

This is exactly the rationale behind the first phase of the E-MINDFUL project, the “Stocktaking exercise”. This phase wishes to reply to the following questions: what can we learn from past communication experiences? How can we harness the lessons from those experiences?

What do we analyse in the stocktaking exercise?

Together with DG HOME, a number of communication endeavours were selected in order to be included in the exercise. A sort of “basket” was created where past communication experiences were collected to be analysed. Priority has been given to information and education campaigns carried out in the European Union and supported by the AMIF Programme (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund).

Additional endeavours from other geopolitical areas were included, upon suggestion of the project partners, OSCE, ILO and EUI, as well as other relevant actors, such as UNHCR (United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees).

How are we carrying out the stocktaking exercise?

We grounded the exercise on relevant literature on attitudes to migrants, in particular on the key recommendations from the 2020 September ODI study “Public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants”[1], a paper that distils the “state of the art” about what people think, why and how about migration and migrants.

The the main axes that we followed to shape our course of action:

• ODI Recommendations:

Engage different disciplines: the close interrelation between different drivers of public opinion means that successful efforts to engage with public attitudes will require political scientists, sociologists, economists, behavioural economists, psychologists, marketers, journalists, and others to come together. Working groups could be formed between these actors, to explore nuances in data and perspectives.

• E-MINDFUL Course of action

The E-MINDFUL Multidisciplinary Working Group: tasked to carry out the stocktaking exercise, the MWG comprises the following areas of expertise: cultural anthropology, semiotics, sociology, behavioural marketing, communication

• ODI Recommendations:

Across regions, countries and communities: efforts should compare ‘anxious’ middle populations across countries and see what resonates with similar target groups in different geographies, particularly low and middle-income countries.

• E-MINDFUL Course of action:

The E-MINDFUL geographical coverage: engaging countries on the Eastern Mediterranean migration route offers the opportunity for mutual learning of different geographies and countries at different levels of income

• ODI Recommendations:

Change the frame, focus on skills, and the role of migrants in our economies: Covid-19 presents an opportunity to move the conversation on from talking about immigrants and immigration per se, to focusing on the roles that immigrants play in our economies and

societies and their vital contributions to Covid-19 recovery. This appeals to the values held by those in the ‘anxious’ middle, and provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution of migrants.

• E-MINDFUL Course of action:

The E-MINDFUL partnership: The partnership between the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities and the International Labour Organization offers the opportunity to leverage the respective mandates, which are shaped around the economic evidence that migration and migrants are engines of socioeconomic development.

What will be the outcome of the stocktaking?

A consolidated and coherent set of lessons learned that will illustrate the key features of more or less effective strategies when communicating migration and migrants. Together with the report, which will stand as a more comprehensive knowledge tool, a set of operational do’s and don’ts will be also distilled.

What for will the stocktaking report be used?

Stay tuned on the next issue of the Moving Stories.

[1] Helen Dempster, Amy Leach and Karen Hargrave, “Public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants: what people think why and how”, ODI Working Paper 588, September 2020

If you missed the first issue of the newsletter, you can check it out here.

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