The Migrant Eye

Our new collaborator Nasima Akaloo introduces a fresh section on multicoolty called “The Migrant Eye”:

Commentaries, criticism, news, analysis, interviews… this is what you can expect from ‘The Migrant Eye’. Living abroad allows you to play with the ‘double-vision’ of being both an insider and outsider. It is in this liminal space of uncertainty, ambiguity, distance and proximity where we will feature different issues related to migration. Commenting on books, films or documentaries, talking to writers and experts, focusing on current issues about migrants or refugees, featuring the important work of artists and organisations…you will find all this and more right here.

I lived in Spain for seven years where I did research on Moroccan migration in Spain from a literary perspective. From their lives back home and the arduous journey undertaken to reach Tangier or some other coastal point that would take the desperate traveler to Europe, the arrival and sometimes imminent deportation or the challenges of finding work and integrating in Spain/Europe, the narratives of both Spanish and Moroccan writers dwelled on the disastrous, tragic nature of (mostly) undocumented migration. More than three decades later, this phenomenon and its dramatic consequences continue to attract discussion and media coverage. African migrants continue to risk their lives to reach European shores and the preventive, defensive approach of Europe has given rise to innumerable deaths. This is but one angle of migration. There are already ‘third generation migrants’ or European citizens with a ‘migration background’ who continue to be trapped in the discourses which try to limit the migration debate to problems of integration, terrorism and Islam or illegality.

‘The Migrant Eye’ will try to focus on the complexity of movement and change by showcasing original and diverse sources which encourage us to look beyond the common stereotypes and headlines inciting hysteria or fear.