News
Today, the Migration Policy Centre launches the Migration Communication Campaigns Database, a tool to support practitioners and advance research on migration communication.
The rise of campaigns and the significance of this database
As migration has become a highly polarised issue, communication campaigns are increasingly used to try to shape public perceptions and attitudes towards migration. Theyâve been conducted locally, nationally, and internationally by a range of organisationsâfrom governments to sports teams to religious groups to international organisations.
Despite this growth, there has been little research on migration communications campaigns and a lack of data for analysis and stocktaking. The Migration Communications Campaigns Database aims to change this.
About the database:
The interactive and open-source database contains more than 300 migration communication campaigns conducted across Europe between 2012 and 2022. The database allows users to analyse and explore migration campaigns by:
- Demographics: Who ran the campaign? When, where, and on what platform?
- Objectives: What was the goal of the campaign and who was it targeted to?
- Content: What topic and what type of migrant did the campaign focus on?
- Strategy: What messages, values, and emotions did the campaign use?
A tool for communicators, practitioners, and the press
The database helps organisations and staff responsible for communicating about migration to:
- Learn whatâs been already been tried
- Identify key messages of existing campaigns
- Get ideas and inspiration of what has worked
- Plan more strategic and effective communication
A tool for researchers
The database is also a tool to advance scholarship in migration communication. It allows researchers from a range of disciplines to:
- Conduct comparative studies on campaigns across countries and by geographic scale
- Analyse longitudinal trends of migration campaigns over an 11-year period
- Contribute to theoretical frameworks and conceptual models related to public communication, persuasion, and social change
Opensource database
The database is freely available for anyone to access. Moving forward, it will rely on and be expanded through the contributions of users. If youâve conducted or heard about a migration communication campaign, please share it here.
Learn more:
- Look at different campaigns on the interactive database
- Read the new report about research on migration communication campaigns
- Download the database to run your own analysis
- Submit a migration communication campaign to be included
