Migrantour is now in the Netherlands!

#Migrantour is a socially responsible tourism initiative established in 2010 in Turin that has since expanded into 20+ cities and rural areas throughout Europe. Migrantour guided walking tours are co-created and led by people with migration backgrounds, with a focus on researching and sharing the migrant heritage of the places in which they live with diverse audiences.

Migrantour Sustainable Routes is the newest European Union-funded project for the Migrantour network. It's a 2-year Erasmus+ adult education project aimed at expanding Migrantour's network into 3 new cities, developing a training manual for new member organisations setting up a Migrantour in their own localities, and creating a publicly accessible digital archive of Migrantour-based storymaps showcasing migrant heritage throughout Europe. The project brings together non-profit organisations from 7 countries: Renovar a Mouraria (Portugal), ACRA (Italy), AlterBrussels (Belgium), De Voorkamer/Collective Nouns (Netherlands), Nexes (Spain), Terra Vera (Slovenia), and Crossing Borders (Denmark).

As an action researcher with Wageningen University that's focused on migrant heritage and the potential of tourism to serve as a tool for transformative learning and global citizenship education, I'm officially linked to this project through De Voorkamer/Collective Nouns. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely together with De Voorkamer/Collective Nouns to set up the Netherlands's very first Migrantour in Utrecht, a city to which I myself migrated and in which I have lived for over a decade, as well as to further contribute to the development of the broader Migrantour initiative throughout Europe. See this flyer about Migrantour in Utrecht and how to get involved!

Below are some photos from the first in-person Migrantour Sustainable Routes project meeting hosted and facilitated by De Voorkamer in Utrecht from 1-3 October 2021. Having started the project earlier this year online because of Covid-19-related restrictions, we were utterly delighted to finally be able to come together in real life. Much progress was made during the gathering with regard to refining the content of the Migrantour training manual; strengthening the ways in which Migrantour values are translated into practice; and getting new Migrantour members ready for recruiting, training and co-creating tour routes with the people with diverse migration backgrounds that will ultimately become Migrantour intercultural companions and lead the walking tours.