Cairo - “Hijrah Talk,” a talk show using digital platforms to challenge misconceptions around migration, was launched on July 29 by IOM’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It aims to spread a fact-based dialogue around migration across 22 Arab countries, and around the Mediterranean region.  The talk show mainly consists of short video interviews with experts by asking them questions that reflect popular misconceptions around migration and help unpack some of these views to better understand the current realities of migration. The bi-lingual name, Hijrah, Arabic for Migration, and Talk, aims to encourage both English and Arabic speakers to watch and interact.

“We’re facing today a critical issue of trust. People are certainly less interested in the usual institutional messages” said Leonard Doyle, IOM Head Media and Communications Division and Spokesperson. “Trust with the audience is built when we start speaking their language, reflecting their concerns, and balancing the dialogue to bring together misconceptions and facts, misinformation and information” he added.

“By providing the public with easy access to data pertaining to the scale, scope, and socioeconomic context of migration trends, especially on a regional scale and with a gender balanced approach, Hijrah Talk will help create a medium to demystify some of the misconceptions around migration,” said Senior Regional Liaison and Policy Officer Kristina Mejo. “This talk show was founded with the objective of bridging the gap between the populist discourse and migration research” she added.

IOM MENA’s regional media and public information strategy focuses on public perceptions and discourse around migration in the region. Regional Media and Public Information Officer for MENA Farah Abdul Sater explained how “in MENA, adults who live in countries with the highest unemployment rates show most negative attitudes towards migration to their countries. While in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which have high percentages of temporary migrant workers , among nationals and Arab expatriates interviewed, a relatively small percentage of people want migration levels to decrease and a high share want levels to increase or stay the same.”

“Understanding such nuances between countries is important to balance the dialogue. However, optimizing existing positive discourse entry points is even more important” added Abdul Sater.  “For example, younger people globally are more likely to have an opinion about migration. They are more likely to favour increasing immigration levels. Hijrah Talk’s digital format and simple language is tailored to engage more young adults in MENA.”

Hijrah Talk premiered on the regional office’s social media pages, including YouTube. The choice of the video format responds to global audience preferences, and the decrease of individual attention span. Six episodes will air between July and October, and each episode will be translated to Arabic, thus allowing local audiences to comment and interact.

As IOM, “our role is not to preach to the usual public of supporters” said Laurent de Boeck, IOM Egypt Chief of Mission, “it is rather to bring the right information to the misinformed public, and to create a constructive dialogue about migration. That’s the power of Hijrah Talk”.

To watch Hijrah Talk’s first episode please visit IOM’s Regional YouTube Channel.

For further information, please contact IOM’s Regional Media and Public Information Unit MENAMEDIA@iom.int