Home as story. Stories from home. Transformations of belonging (2026)

The importance of creating and sharing stories

Around the world, new and ongoing conflicts are forcing millions of people to leave their homes. According to the UN Refugee Agency, by the end of June 2025, the latest reporting period, 117.3 million people worldwide had been forced to leave their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights abuses, or events severely disrupting public order. Of these, nearly 42.5 million were refugees. Migration has consequently become a major political concern and a frequent topic in the news, but the real experiences of refugees continue to be presented through negative or dehumanizing language, with words like “invasion” or “hordes” significantly shaping public opinion.

In this context, first-person accounts are crucial for understanding the complexity of migration experiences. Participatory research arts methods prove to be powerful tools for amplifying migrants’ voices, as they can tell their stories on their own terms and, in doing so, challenge simplistic or victimizing views. In this way, this approach helps to “rehumanize” those who are too often reduced to statistics or stereotypes. However, most art-based projects remain focused on local or national contexts, and given the global scale of forced displacement, there is a pressing need for initiatives like this one that connect these experiences across borders.

Hearing directly from people who have lived through displacement is essential to understanding what migration really means for them. Creative and participatory projects can be powerful ways to share their voices with a bigger audience, challenging stereotypes and encouraging people to see migrants as human beings rather than numbers or labels. While concentrating on specific regional and national settings, arts-based projects, both in terms of participation and creation, allow for raising awareness of shared human experiences and values. In this publication we explore the meaning of home and belonging, in a context of displacement, as a basic human need we all have, regardless of where we are or where we come from.

Home as story, stories of home: transformations of belonging. Project and e-book

This e-book consists of a total of 60 artistic works created by forcibly displaced people over the age of eighteen, who settled in Glasgow, Johannesburg, and Madrid, and from a diverse range of nationalities including Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Palestine, Mali, and Guinea Conakry.

The e-book is the final outcome of the CIVIS Open Lab project “Migrant Storytelling on Home and Belonging as Transformative Tools” (2024-2025), developed by an interdisciplinary and international team made up of researchers from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of Glasgow, and the University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with organizations that provide protection and support to forcibly displaced individuals: CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado)  in Madrid, Migrant Voice in the UK, and the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.

The purpose of this project was to create safe spaces to empower refugees and displaced people to tell their own stories, placing their voices at the centre of the project. By exploring the themes of home and belonging through participatory arts-based methodologies and storytelling, the project offered creative tools for expressing experiences and emotions that are often silenced or overlooked, while challenging stereotypical and dehumanizing portrayals of new settlers.

Both the planned workshops and this compilatory e-book build on three previous projects by members of this team: EverydayMayfair (2017) by Nereida RiperoMuñiz  and Elsa Oliviera, which explores first-person narratives of Somali migrants in Johannesburg; The Meaning of Home. A toolkit for storytelling interventions with migrant children. (2024) by Kate Shand  and Nereida Ripero Muñiz, a toolkit based on a six-week workshop on arts and storytelling with migrant children in Johannesburg; and All Roads Lead to Glasgow (2023), edited by Marzanna Antoniak and Maria Marchidanu, an anthology of poems, short stories, and images created by migrants who have made Scotland their home, published as a collaboration between Povestry and Migrant Voice. In addition, the creative work of members of the Migrant Voice Gallery in Glasgow, of CEAR in Madrid, and of the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg has been a major source of inspiration for the conception and development of this e-book.

Read the e-book

The workshops

The works included in this e-book were created by participants in three to four creative workshops held in Madrid, Glasgow and Johannesburg between May and August 2025. In Madrid, these sessions took place at the cultural center La Corrala; in Johannesburg, at the Windybrow Arts Centre; and in Glasgow, at the Garnethill Multicultural Centre which houses Migrant Voice.

These locations were carefully selected for their strong connections to community engagement and support. They all share a mission to revitalize intercultural relations, promote local participation, and foster artistic, educational, and social activities while establishing safe spaces for interactions. Each workshop consisted of a maximum of 14 participants to ensure individualized attention and to provide personal guidance and proper support for all activities. 

The e-book can also be downloaded here.

^{Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.}