The Journey Story
The MotM Journey Story is more than just a document of movement. It is a marker of encounter, meaningful connection, and an establishment of trust that allows textured stories from vulnerable, unheard people in the migrant community to emerge.
What is a Journey Story?
Component Parts: Path Points
There is a structure of path points, or key components, that make up what we call a “Journey Story.” These path points are recorded specifically to create an arc or framework of a person’s movement. We stick to this formula in our reporting and documentation for a few reasons. First, to have an organized geographical record that traces a person’s path of migration; next, to keep a record of human rights abuses and violence to be drawn upon for accountability; and lastly, to allow the participant to view and conceptualize their journey holistically.
Those path points may include:
Dates of departure and movement
Countries crossed and cities stopped in
Means of travel or transport
Description of interior spaces and surrounding environments
Mental state at each point
Physical security at each point
Description of violence or abuse, and by whom
Memories
Dates of arrival
And other details
Both the procedure and the product of reporting in this format create a way for people to understand traumatic events that they may not have processed as distinct from themselves. That is to say, the retelling can be an opportunity for the people we profile in the migrant community to see the violence they endured as an act, not as their identity. This is important because movement, as it occurs for vulnerable populations widely, is characterized by indignity and violence perpetrated upon them. Violence and indignity have the effect, if not labeled and expressed, of distorting one’s self-worth and sense of self. Our purpose is to help them redeem that.
Telling the Journey Story offers a moment of confidence and dignity to emerge, things that will later be systematically interrogated in the social and legal travails that attend their asylum cases and newcomer statuses to a country.
Likewise, this is why you will rarely find the answer to the question “why” a person fled home or for what imagined or real purpose. Their reasons are innately believed and are not up to our evaluation.
People: Individual and Correspondent
The construction of a Journey Story develops between an assigned regional correspondent who meets people at the port of entry (but also often elsewhere in a national territory) as close as possible to the arrival date of the person whose story is being documented.
Correspondents are responsible for maintaining the relationship between the people they meet on behalf of the organization, keeping in regular contact with them at intervals determined by the wishes and needs of the person they are profiling. In this way, “sources,” as they are known in traditional journalism, become much closer. Often the people who our correspondents have worked with the longest become a part of their lives as well. This give and take of a real relationship is the heart of what MotM defines as Humanitarian Journalism, and for its correspondents as “Humanitarian Journalists.”
How it works
It starts with trust
Journey Stories emerge from the trust built between the correspondent and the person being profiled. Specifically, a sense of safety emerges from the relationship we keep and from knowing that correspondents are not engaged in judgement or evaluation of the testimony being shared.
For context, the people we represent face constant interrogation, not only being evaluated in asylum offices, but in day-to-day life in their host societies, at each step their motives and movements being questioned. The baseline assumption for them is that they must justify their existence, all while often loosening themselves from the crosshairs of trauma.
But we believe the people we work with.
We intervene on this unfair evaluative standard with a relationship that can explore their lives and stories in an exponential way, which services a more robust record on the page. We witness and document from a place of mutual respect, asking at each stage, How would we ourselves want to be spoken to? We approach our work with the goal to build meaningful connections on a personal level that lasts.
We model encounter and connection as a sustained practice of human connection, empathy and solidarity, and we understand that no person can be liberated with a single charitable act. The privileged and in-power, rather, need to be allies in systemic sociopolitical change. We understand that people in the migrant and refugee community are often emerging from extremely vulnerable and violent situations, and so must be met with consistent care and attention – something that cannot be executed or solved with one action.
OUR PHILOSOPHY:
When you believe people’s words the narrative changes
“It gave me some point of light, some encouragement.”
Andrew (Nigeria)
MotM community member since 2019
It’s a long-term relationship
Journey Stories don’t end at arrival. MotM serves as a place for people to continue sharing the experiences and the realities of their lives long after rescue or crossing at a port of entry and, potentially, in perpetuity.
We are able to continue capturing and cataloging these experiences because we prioritize the long-term relationships we keep with each individual. Correspondents maintain consistent and sometimes even daily communication with many of the people we work for. Beyond the first “path points” of a Journey Story, there are also the ordinary aspects of day to day life that encourage easy trustworthy exchanges – How was your day? How was work this week?
From these organic bonds an ongoing communication cadence evolves with simplicity, and ultimately, fosters a more robust profile that lives in our archive to support long-term study, research and policy.
Further Resources
Coming soon!