What if, instead of only the toxic opinions of a few billionaires, the news contained real life stories from migrants?
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The Missing Context: Empire, Exploitation, Land Grabs, Evictions
“That new life that I couldn’t see, because I was born into war and hadn’t known any other reality: I knew that it existed. And hanging onto that hope each day was a method for me to survive.” — Dr Waheed Arian, who escaped Afghanistan as a child and later rebuilt his life as a NHS A&E doctor in the UK.
People don’t become refugees by choice. Displaced people are forced out by war, persecution, or land theft carried out by states, corporations, and profiteers. Across the globe—from Argentina to Zambia – land grabs violently evict whole communities without protection or compensation.
Yet mainstream, malignant media narratives ignore these root causes.
Instead, they caricature displaced people as invaders or burdens on society, sustaining the false idea that migration is a menace rather than a symptom of global injustice — in which media are complicit.
How Fear is Manufactured
Terms like “invasion,” or “swarm,” are used in order to reduce people to threats. This language doesn’t just stigmatise—it fuels violence. The Hope Not Hate report Stoking the Flames shows how hostile rhetoric drives far-right mobilisation, while research in Nature links media focus on immigration to rises in attacks against asylum seekers.
Displaced people rarely have a platform to tell their own stories. Stripped of voice, they are cast as opportunists or criminals. Not surprisingly, this breeds shame, alienation, and threats of violence.
As writer Elif Shafak reminds us: “History has shown that it doesn’t start with concentration camps or mass murder, or civil war or genocide. It always starts with words: stereotypes, cliches, tropes. The fight against dehumanisation, therefore, also needs to start with words. Stories. It is easier to make sweeping generalisations about others if we know close to nothing about them; if they remain an abstraction. To move forward, we need to reverse the process: start by rehumanising those who have been dehumanised. And for that we need the art of storytelling”
Change the Story, Change the Future
We believe first-person truths must lead reporting. Occasionally, media gets this right.
Like the story in the Guardian about Mohanad, a young Sudanese man forced to flee Darfur, described the moment he had to escape without warning:
“At 19, I had to flee my country, afraid for my life, without even saying goodbye to my family.”
Smuggled across borders, kidnapped and tortured, he risked the sea crossing to Europe and was rescued by Médecins Sans Frontières. After years in asylum limbo, he now studies medicine and volunteers with the Refugee Council.
Christine Onzia Wani, a refugee journalist from South Sudan, explains what happens when those forced to flee have a platform.
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“Writing has given me a voice. It helps me process trauma, and it helps others in my community know they are not alone.”
Her reporting from Uganda’s Bidi Bidi settlement doesn’t just tell of horror, but of survival, solidarity, and hope.
These stories, and others like them show what becomes possible when displaced people have a platform in the media. Displaced people are no longer “swarms” or “burdens,” but survivors of injustice with hopes, skills, and futures.
When reporting turns its gaze upstream – to the profiteers, land grabs, and wars that drive people from their homes – the role of the media in manufacturing fear becomes clear. A revolution in media means dismantling disinformation, amplifying truth, and creating the platforms where silenced voices have space to be heard.
Change the media, and we change the world.
What can I do?
If you want to help shift the narrative, you could:
• Share this article directly with editors and ask: “Where are the migrant voices?”
• Share this on your social media, tag journalists and ask: “Have you invited a refugee to tell their own story?”
• Support the campaigns listed below.
Championing Change with Campaign Groups
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
https://www.rescue.org/
Provides humanitarian aid, resettlement, and advocacy for refugees and displaced people in over 40 countries.
Amnesty International
https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants
Campaigns globally to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, challenging unjust laws and calling out abuses.
Refugees International
https://www.refugeesinternational.org/
Independent advocacy organisation focused on lifesaving assistance, protection, and solutions for displaced people worldwide.
Together With Refugees
https://togetherwithrefugees.org.uk/
UK coalition of 200+ refugee charities and trade unions pushing for fair and compassionate policies.
The African Refugee-Led Network (ARN)
https://arn-network.org/
A coalition of refugee-led organisations (RLOs) that work to amplify the voices and advocate for the rights of refugees in Africa
#99Problems
This is just one of the #99Problems with the media.
This single placard and perspective cannot tell the full story of displacement — from Windrush to partition, from stolen Indigenous lands to modern-day refugee crises.
The truth is: every country is shaped by migration — sometimes chosen, too often forced.
There are more placards in this series. Stay tuned, get involved, and ask yourself: what’s missing?