On 22-27 of April, in the beautiful Italian Alps, near Torino, UNITED for Intercultural Dialogue held an international conference entitled “Moving Stories, Narratives of Migration Crossing Europe”. In particular the focus was on the anti-immigration narratives that are used in Europe by movements such as Pegida and the Front National. The participants, representing mainly youth and migrant grassroots civil society organisations, for the whole week worked to explore the possibilities for constructing a counter-narrative and engaging in Europe-wide campaigns to advocate for more awareness on the plight of migrant communities and refugees. Based on an interview given to the organisation in March, EuroClio Director Jonathan Even Zohar was invited to animate a session on the role of history in the development of both the narratives and counter-narratives. He used the opportunity to present the issue of the Eurocentric underpinnings of history education across Europe, as well as provide a basic training exercise on how to analyse and identify political (ab)use of history for the purpose of the so-called xenophobic narrative. Find out more on EuroClio’s contribution through the eyes of the conference organisers or access this report in Italian media. The conference brought together very relevant and interesting experts and practitioners, read all about their presentations and background on the conference page.
