📢 UNTOLD Europe Project Workshop: The Impact of Colonial Legacies on European Migration Policies
📍 Residence Palace, Brussels | 🗓️ 21 October 2025
🤝 Organized by ECPS in collaboration with Oxfam Intermón and Qalia
📌How do colonial legacies continue to shape European migration governance? 🌍
📌The European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), together with Oxfam Intermón (
@OxfamIntermon) and Qalia, hosted the UNTOLD Europe Workshop on Migration Narratives titled “The Impact of Colonial Legacies on European Migration Policies.” The event gathered scholars, journalists, civil society actors, and activists to explore how historical hierarchies and colonial frameworks continue to influence European migration policy and discourse.
🔹 Maria Jesús Zambrana Vega (Oxfam Intermón) opened the workshop by outlining the project’s mission to expose the colonial continuities shaping migration governance and to promote inclusive, rights-based narratives.
🔹 In the panel “Who Tells the Story? Power, Perspective, and the Politics of Migration,” Prof. Ilhan Kaya (Ghent University) reflected on reclaiming the “right to tell,” Journalist Nawab Khan examined the shortcomings of EU migration policy, Marwa Neji (Ghent University) analyzed asymmetries in knowledge production, and Ahsen Ayhan (Solidarity With Others) discussed the emotional and gendered dimensions of displacement.
🔹 The session “Migration Experiences – Voices and Perspectives” featured Prof. Ilias Ciloglu (University of Antwerp) on personal migration experiences; Becky Slack (
@Becky_Slack -- Your Agenda) on the media’s role in shaping migration and gender narratives; Dr. Reda Majahar (
@Dr_Mahajar -- University of Antwerp) on Global North–South hierarchies in refugee research; and Katerina Kočkovska Šetinc (Peace Institute Slovenia) with Mojca Harmandić (Pandora’s Path Institute) on systemic barriers to integration in Slovenia.
🔹 The Country Case Studies session included Andriana Cosciug (Romania), César Santamaría Galán (Spain), Fouzia Assouli (Morocco), and Anissa Thabet (Tunisia), who offered comparative insights into how colonial logics persist in migration frameworks across Europe and the Global South.
💬 In the final part of the workshop, participants engaged in group discussions to propose alternative framings for migration narratives. The workshop concluded with a vibrant plenary session emphasizing the need to decolonize migration discourse, amplify migrant and gendered perspectives, and promote communication strategies rooted in equality and human rights.
📌The workshop was part of the broader UNTOLD Europe Project, a collective effort to reimagine how Europe narrates migration—beyond colonial legacies and toward inclusive, humane, and forward-looking policy frameworks. ✊
📸Photos and videos by Umit Vurel
🔗 Learn more:
populismstudies.org/untold-e…
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