Snapshots From The Borders is a 3-year project co-funded by the European Union (EuropeAid DEAR budget line), run by 35 partners, border Local Authorities and Civil Society organisations.
Snapshots From The Borders aims to improve the critical understanding of European, national and local decision makers and of public opinion about global interdependencies determining migration flows towards European borders, in the perspective of reaching SDGs targets, especially SDG 1, 5, 10 11 and 16. Specifically, the project intends to strengthen a new horizontal, active network among cities directly facing migration flows at EU borders, as a way to promote more effective policy coherence at all levels (European, national, local).
The heart of the project is “voice and experiences (snapshots) from the borders” and their broadest diffusion among European citizens. The voice of the real protagonists will travel from periphery to the center, at national and European level, where the decisions are taken. The project aims to inform European citizens that migration is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon and a political issue which needs efforts and concrete actions taken by people and organization/network at all level of society. A better understanding by Europeans of migration as a development issue paired with engagement fosters global citizenship and build strong bonds of solidarity. Borders’ direct perspective and engagement is an added value for raising awareness, sharing knowledge, encouraging participation and showing citizens that they have an important role to play. By bringing voices and effective solutions from the borders where migration is lived directly, people will be more informed and aware of the determinants and actions and they will become protagonists in calling for a fair world. Messages reaching the EU public through media present migration as an emergency problem with negative impact oversimplifying causes and determinants. Once people are aware of the dimension, implication, causes and solutions, they will seek a change of attitude in terms of support for civil society.
In other words, Snapshots from the borders implements a bottom-up approach in terms of capacity building, advocacy and network building, where local decision making and stakeholders involvement is valued as able to identify real needs and goals in the migration and development debate.
Finally, the Action intends to contribute to a new European narrative which re-localizes the development discourse in the Mediterranean and at other European borders: this includes a shift towards a more coherent human rights-based approach to migration and development; new territorial policies aimed at creating decent work and sustainable production and consumption patterns; transnational and decentralized cooperation fostering strong linkages among communities; and migrants as a new human development actors participating actively in local communities at the social, economic and political levels.
