Communication in Migration: What is happening to children and young people?

Stories shape how we see the world, and for children and young migrants in Europe, the stories being told—or not told—have profound implications. These young people face unique challenges, yet their experiences are often invisible in mainstream media and public conversations. When they do appear, they are frequently framed in ways that simplify or distort their realities. This lack of nuanced representation has ripple effects, influencing public perception, policy, and the ability of communities to offer meaningful support.

In this blog, I reflect on how child and young migrants are represented in media and communication campaigns, the gaps in coverage and research, and the potential for strategic communication to improve public understanding and policy responses.

Missing from the Media

As of January 1st, 2023, 7.4 million children under 18 in the EU lacked citizenship in their country of residence. This represented 9.2% of all children in the EU and 17.9% of the non-national residents. Among young people aged 15 to 29, non-nationals made up 11.9% of the population, with 14.1% born abroad (Eurostat data). Despite these significant figures, the lived realities of child and young migrants in Europe remain poorly understood, a reflection of their limited visibility in mainstream media and public discourse.

This invisibility first struck me in 2018 during a research visit to Italy. I struggled to find studies or discussions on how migrant children were represented in media or what that representation meant for their experiences, and I tried to address this through a research article. Five years later, during a fellowship at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC), I realised little had changed. Both media coverage and research on this subject remain sparse. Determined to shed light on this issue, I began delving deeper.

How the Media Portray Migrant Children

Mainstream media often wield significant influence over migration narratives—the stories that shape public understanding of why people migrate and the challenges they face. When children are featured, they are frequently depicted as passive dependents or part of a broader familial context. Adolescents, in particular, may be framed within crime-related narratives or as threats to public order. Coverage rarely addresses the root causes of migration or the unique vulnerabilities faced by young migrants.

Research from Eberl, Caviedes, Rosen and Crafter identifies six dominant frames in migration reporting:

1. Generic frames, emphasising negativity and victimisation.
2. Issue-specific frames, focusing on cultural, social, economic, or security aspects—often negatively.
3. Economic narratives, highlighting costs and labor issues.
4. Security narratives, stressing crime and border control.
5. Humanitarian frames, centered on rescue and moral duty.
6. Ontological frames, categorising migrants into binaries such as child vs. adult or refugee vs. economic migrant.

While these frames simplify complex realities, they often fail to convey a nuanced understanding of child and young migrants’ lives. Instead, the focus remains on sensationalised and oversimplified stories.

Non-Profits Filling the Void

In response to this media gap, non-profit organisations have created campaigns to amplify the voices of migrant children and youth. Using the MPC’s Migration Communication Campaign Database, I analysed 32 child-focused campaigns in Europe from 2012 to 2022. However, after excluding campaigns with unclear connections to children or insufficient data, only 15 remained. Of these, 11 relied heavily on videos, including animations, documentaries, and music clips.

These campaigns highlight the power of storytelling, but they often lack a clear call to action. While images of suffering can evoke empathy, they risk perpetuating narratives of helplessness without fostering understanding or action. Moreover, the reach and impact of such campaigns remain uncertain.

At the same time, while a humanitarian frame often transpires from these initiatives, there is at best an attempt to convey not only the true situation of children and young people, but also their potential. This helps to provide the viewer with a different lens.

Insights from the Field

To explore these challenges, I organised a seminar, hosted by the MPC, titled Communication in Migration: Reflections and Practices to Support Child and Young Migrants. The event featured presentations by Stephanie Acker, Research Associate at MPC, and Flavio di Giacomo, Spokesperson for the IOM’s Coordination Office for the Mediterranean.

Stephanie emphasised the dominance of awareness-raising over actionable goals in communication campaigns. She urged organisations to rethink their approach, targeting specific audiences—such as policymakers or local communities—rather than the general public.

Flavio critiqued the “toxic” media narrative in Europe, which often sensationalises migration. He advocated for campaigns that influence policymakers, encouraging them to adopt more accurate and supportive narratives. These, in turn, could reshape media coverage and promote integration. He also talked about IOM’s efforts in creating campaigns that promote integration by targeting specifically diaspora groups.

Rethinking Communication about Child Migrants

There are key insights that we can take from this analysis:

1. Impact of Media Representation: media coverage of child and young migrants often frames them in a limited and problematic way. This oversimplified and polarised representation fails to capture their complex situations and the reasons for seeking safety in Europe.
2. Lack of Reporting: In-depth reporting on the driving factors behind migration is often absent, leading to a lack of public understanding and empathy regarding migrants’ stories.
3. Role of Non-Profits: While non-profit organisations provide crucial narratives about young migrants, their campaigns frequently focus on suffering, which may aid fundraising but doesn’t educate or inspire action.
4. Need for Strategic Communication: Non-profits must adopt more strategic communication approaches to engage target audiences like policymakers and local communities, moving beyond awareness raising and emphasising action-oriented goals to drive change.
5. Influence on Policy and Media Narratives: Engaging with policymakers can help reframe migration narratives in the media and promote supportive policies for migrants. By targeting policymakers with campaigns that promote integration and understanding, organisations can help reshape the narrative in a more accurate and positive way.

Overall, there is a pressing need for a more comprehensive and empathetic approach to discussing migration, particularly for child and young migrants, to foster public support and meaningful policy change. Through sustained research and the development of more effective communication practices, we can learn more about what is happening to child and young migrants.