The hands-on part of the workshop began by identifying the Litany—the surface-level headlines that dominate current media and political cycles. At the surface Litany, our current headlines are filled with crises: border walls, militarized frontiers, rising numbers of displaced people, xenophobia, and humanitarian emergencies.

Participants noted a landscape of fear: rhetoric describing an "invasion," "illegal aliens," and "imported antisemitism." For instance, the litany includes headlines such as migrants are coming to take our jobs and benefits, migrants are committing crimes and increasing housing costs, people choose to put their kids in these unsafe boats, a boat carrying hundreds of migrants drowns, backward human animals are destroying Western civilisation, and so forth. Even seemingly positive stories, like the “Spiderman of Paris” through which Mamoudou Gassama moved from “an African migrant to a French hero,” were critiqued for reinforcing the idea of "deservingness"—the notion that a migrant must perform a heroic act to be granted the basic right of belonging. 

This above constitutes the grim reality of migration as a problem to be managed.

Beneath this, the Systemic Structure reveals entrenched institutions: nation-states, immigration bureaucracies, and a global economic system that exploits labour while restricting movement. These structures reinforce a paradigm of control and exclusion. Based on concepts such as nationalism, statehood and sovereignty, they lead to a world built on injustice and fear of the “other”, borders, colonialism and transnational capitalism. This structure also forms the onto-epistemological grounds that define legitimate actors – usually as naturalized citizens and nationalized passport holders – and simultaneously delegitimizes and excludes others as aliens without legitimate legal papers, including other- and more-human actors. The latter are not only denied from participation, but often also excluded from the analytical framework.

The systems are full of short-term designed political programmes only meant to win the next election cycle, thus causing wars, diseases, poverty, climate and environmental collapse. Ours is a world where sea levels are rising; ice is melting; overfishing and over-farming are practiced; earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes are increasing; and ecosystems are collapsing. All these happenings are pushing both humans and nonhumans to move.

Yet, hypocrisy abounds: while rich countries perpetuate a saviour complex, institutions such as the EU are giving over 1 billion Euros to Frontex to “fight” immigration and Schengen Visa deposits and rules continue to limit travel from the Global South. At the same time, migrants are confronted with increasing challenges in host countries: for instance, they face a “Teufelskreis” (vicious circle), a situation wherein for registration purposes in Germany you need housing for some visas and you also need a visa for housing. To make matter worse, some landlords do not want migrants in their properties. Furthermore, the current mainstream political discourse on climate refugees tends to reverse causes and effects, thereby turning systematic environmental racism into structural stigmatization. This discourse often uses biologizing and speciesist categories and more-than human labels ranging from “invasive” and “parasitic” to “infectious”, thus, obscuring the causes and consequences of migration and mobility.

The Worldview underpinning this is often one of “us vs. them,” where “national sovereignty” reigns supreme, and migrants are seen as either a threat or a resource, rather than fellow beings. Fear of “loss of cultural identity,” “economic strain,” greed and aiming for more power and dominance, patriarchy and capitalism, and “security risks” drive much of this perspective. Stereotypes and xenophobia abound given that “Happyland needs to stay happyland” and “fortress Europe must be protected.” We are in a world where a given “host country can’t host the whole misery of the world” yet meritocracy is claimed to be a universal thing. Unwelcoming people claim they want to “save the democratic and free world from outsiders.” Passport inequality is acceptable and normalised while seeking asylum is a privilege, not a basic human right. These worldviews assume that “everybody gets what they deserve,” that migrants “did this to themselves” and that it is “better to deal with the devil you know.” In this world, people would rather go against marginalized groups than against those in power because it is easier and does not question the status quo of the dominant worldview.

But the deepest layer, the Myth and Metaphor, is where the true power lies. Many myths help to sustain this old world and include: believing in “the survival of the fittest”, there is “no alternative to capitalism”, there will always be “progress”, and “technology will fix” it all. Furthermore, there is also the hyping of western countries as some form of paradise (e.g., American Dream). Artists, poets and anti-racism activists counter these metaphors, such as German anti-racism expert and trainer Tupoka Ogette’s critical examination of “Happyland” Germany in her book exit Racism (2017) or Hassan Balasim (Iraq/Finland) in a poem called “A refugee in the paradise that is Europe” (2016).