The making of migration narratives

Understanding Processes and Gauging Impacts

Bibliographic Data

ID3647253
AuthorsBlanca Garcés-Mascareñas (0000-0003-4039-3964, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, corresponding author), Ferruccio Pastore (0000-0002-5816-5946, International and European Forum on Migration Research)
Year2025
Volume51
Issue16
Pages4119-4137
Publication date2025-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2025.2523107
OpenAlexW4412098904
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited49

The ambition of this Special Issue is to articulate a new approach to the study of migration narratives that addresses simultaneously the main gaps of the existing literature by introducing a processual, cross-sectoral and impact-sensitive lens. With this purpose, the article proposes the concept of Migration Narrative Success (MNS) as a bridging and cross-disciplinary tool to facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange across disciplines and perspectives. After reflecting upon the so-called narrative turn in migration studies and the need for enhancing interdisciplinary dialogue in this field of research, we define MNS and identify two key dimensions for its operationalisation, that we respectively call pervasiveness and transformativity. We then identify the main drivers of narrative success. Studies coming from different disciplines suggest that narratives’ influential capacity depends on the content and form of narratives but also on the context in which they develop and circulate. This leads us to identify six analytical foci based on six ‘W questions’: to what extent what is said, how, by whom and to whom, why, where and when are key fundamental factors in explaining MNS. In the last section, we shift the focus from narratives referring to specific migration-related events to broader narratives about (im)migration as a societal phenomenon and how these two scales relate to each other

Economic geography · Geography · Irregular migration · Linguistics · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Media Studies and Communication · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Policy Transfer and Learning