Through an EU-funded project called ‘Where To? Stories of Migration and Belonging’, the local storytelling organisation Lignin Stories is exploring how storytelling can help young people form a stronger sense of belonging in societies that they adopt as their own.

Run in collaboration with local refugee organisation Spark15 and the Centro Italiano Storytelling in Italy, the project brings together local and migrant youths in a series of workshops that explore what home means when we are on the move and how shared public space plays a part in bringing us together.

In Malta, local young people had the opportunity to get involved with the storytelling organisation Lignin Stories, as well as Spark15 – an organisation that aims to help young migrants integrate. Led by the present author, they discussed which aspects of their life help them to bond.

On a social and cultural level, educational classes, the sharing of food and participating in sport were commonly identified as crucial to homemaking. On an emotional level, home was often identified as the place where “people know what you need before you have to explain it”.

A community ready to listen and empathise makes a big difference to young migrants

For young migrants who are often living away from family, this takes on a deeper level of significance as one of their core needs is learning to navigate complex legal systems that consistently push them to the periphery of belonging. Having a community that is ready to listen and empathise makes a big difference to the quality of life of young migrants.

The ‘Where To?’ project took an unexpected turn towards the end of the mentoring programme, when instead of accepting to tell their stories of their past and arrival in Malta, the young people asked to produce a storytelling artefact that is more future-facing, based on capacity building.

Under the guidance of a group of mentors, principally Marcela Fratescu, the participants co-created a book that celebrates the origin of Spark15 and its current goals.

The book was launched at SparkFest24 on June 23. It highlights all the ways in which young migrants can contribute to society and what they perceive to be the greatest opportunities ahead.

The ‘Where To?’ project’s storytelling centre in Portico, Italy, became a shared social space for migrant families whose children attend the local school.

In Italy, the project allowed the storytelling centre in Portico to become a shared social space for migrant families whose children attend the local school. Although it is not a large population, until now there had not been an opportunity for these families to meet and get to know each other.

Collaborating with storytellers Giovanna Conforto, Stefania Ganzini and Flavio Milandri, among other artists, the participants collected unused or broken bits of ceramic, shared the personal stories that connected them to these objects and used them to create a public installation of a gecko.

Creating the gecko from broken bits of ceramic outside the municipal building in Portico, Italy.

The gecko, affixed to a popular passageway outside the municipal building, symbolises the adoption of public space as one in which all members of society have a place. It is a material representation of the work that needs to be done to facilitate cultural integration and the importance of foregrounding circular, sustainable economies that, in line with the EU’s Green Deal, leave no person or place behind.

Now that the mentoring programmes in both countries are completed, the storytelling organisations are preparing the research outcomes for publication.

Giuliana Fenech is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta’s Department of English and founder/chief storyteller of Lignin Stories. To find out more, view www.ligninstories.com or e-mail Dr Fenech at: ligninstories@gmail.com.