Moving mindsets: changing migration narratives in Brazil and beyond (Follow-On to ES/S007415/1 South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub)

Moving Mindsets is a public impact and engagement programme for the Migration for Development and Equality Hub (MIDEQ). Partners in twelve countries across the Global South, organised into six migration 'corridors', make up MIDEQ's global network. MIDEQ seeks to move the nexus of migration knowledge production to the countries that experience the most migration. MIDEQ's overall goal is to inform policies and practices that improve the lives of migrants, their families and the communities in which they live. 'Changing narratives' is a MIDEQ impact pathway because of the harm done to prospects of reducing global inequalities and contributing to development by blunt, opaque and centralised representations of migration. One of MIDEQ's migration 'corridors' is Haiti-Brazil. MIDEQ's findings show that integration options available to Haitian migrants are defined by the exclusionary structuring of Brazilian society and dominant narratives of prejudice. The influence of these factors has only increased since the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

The representational attack on Haiti mirrors the punishment meted out by a series of global powers during the country's fight to abolish slavery and gain independence, and which has continued ever since. Since the early 1900s, international media coverage has fabricated negative representations of Haiti that favour white supremacy (Baroco 2011). Reporting on the 2010 earthquake dehumanised victims while safeguarding the humanity of the white spectator (Collins 2013, Balaji 2011). The dissemination of such constructs conceals the history of colonial violence Haiti suffered at the hands of the same actors that today attempt to control its future. Brazil, a country that maintained slavery until 1888 and later sought to use immigration policies to 'whiten' its population, contends with the perpetuation of its own colonial legacy through contemporary institutional structures and societal attitudes. Black Brazilians experience widespread human rights abuses and poverty rates that far exceed those of their white counterparts.

As Brazil's new government returns the country to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, it is time to reframe narratives to capture the spatial, temporal and relational factors that distinguish the experiences of Haitian migrants. Drawing on MIDEQ's research in creative arts, Moving Mindsets will deliver impact and engagement activities for Brazil's Haitian community. The programme will confront dominant narratives to open spaces for dialogue and exchange on new approaches to policy migration. Moving Mindsets will deliver:
- Music, drumming and dance workshops on Candomblé (Brazil) and Voudou (Haiti);
- The development and promotion of the Haitian choir established in 2022;
- A cooking course for Haitian women;
- The production of a photographic exhibition and book; and
- A one-day public event at the Museum of Tomorrow including: a seminar on tools for narrative change; four multimedia exhibitions; and a ceremony at Cais do Volongo to recognise Brazil's history of slavery.

The Moving Mindsets programme will catalyse change by exploring and communicating the migration narratives of Haitians to a wide range of public, professional and specialist audiences in Brazil and beyond. The workshops, activities and public event will open spaces to discuss narratives arriving from other Global South contexts, giving policymakers, academics, international civil society organisations and the general public opportunities to engage with data, evidence and cultural outputs that offer new ways for understanding the relationships between migration, development and inequality.