Repository of Practices

Primary GCM Objectives

GCM Guiding Principles*

*All practices are to uphold the ten guiding principles of the GCM. This practice particularly exemplifies these listed principles.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2021 - Present

Type of practice

Project/Programme

Geographic scope

Geographic Scope:

Global

Summary

It Takes A Community (ITAC) is an international, multi-stakeholder, social media communications campaign that showcases the positive contributions that migrants and refugees make in their communities, thus contributing to international efforts to combat xenophobia and discrimination, build social cohesion, and promote managed migration. ITAC emerged from Canada’s co-leadership of the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s (GFMD) Working Group on Public Narratives on Migration, along with the Government of Ecuador and the GFMD Mayors Mechanism, and was officially launched in March 2021.

The main beneficiaries of ITAC are local communities, states, cities, businesses, civil society organizations, youth groups, and migrants and refugees themselves. ITAC is fully online and works to harness the power of diverse stakeholders to share positive stories about the contributions that migrants and refugees make to society. The campaign provides engaging online content and customizable digital resources through the ITAC Toolkit, which is available on the campaign website: https://www.ittakesacommunity.org/.

ITAC seeks to positively shift public opinion about migrants and refugees by increasing public awareness of their contributions to and within their communities, engaging a multi-stakeholder community like the UN’s Major Group for Children and Youth, International Organization of Employers, the GFMD Mayors Mechanism and local cities, and the GFMD Civil Society Mechanism, among other partners. With an initial budget of $50,000 USD, ITAC generated 6.4 million social media impressions in 2021 and certain livestreamed discussions and events had a high degree of public engagement.

The second phase of ITAC took place between fall 2022 to winter 2023 with a larger budget ($267,821 USD) supporting additional activities: a series of dynamic live-streamed virtual expert dialogues with communication practitioners and public discussions; the creation of a global network of “narrative changes” (i.e. recruitment of influencers) for better public engagement; and activities that focused on key geographic regions, specifically Central and South America.

The first and second phases of ITAC were implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Partner/Donor Organizations

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

Ecuador

Global Forum for Migration and Development's Mayoral Mechanism

Benefit and Impact

International migrants, whether moving across borders by choice, or individuals in situations of forced displacement, can endure challenges, like discrimination and xenophobia, that stand in the way of their full integration in host communities. ITAC seeks to foster more welcoming host communities that enable migrants and refugees to thrive and enjoy basic rights. The campaign works to build social cohesion and promote balanced public narratives through sharing stories online that highlight the contributions that migrants and refugees make in their host communities that enrich economies and societies at large. This can help with stability for communities and individuals and reduce pressure for onwards movement to other communities or countries.

Globally, public narratives about migrants and refugees continue to be highly polarized, with serious implications for migrants, refugees, and their communities alike. What makes ITAC unique is its participatory approach. People are far more likely to listen to those in their own networks – not government messaging. ITAC has leveraged social media platforms to engage the public through using the hashtag, sharing their own stories online or organizing live discussions. In 2021, youth, businesses, mayors and civil society generated buzz online with their respective “takeovers” of the ITAC online campaign through X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok, where those groups respectively organized live chats, online challenges and discussion groups.

ITAC measures effectiveness by social media reach and engagement. Since the beginning of the campaign, ITAC has generated over 12 million social media impressions. 115+ pieces of content were created for the ITAC website (ittakesacommunity.org) and shared on social media, and the campaign toolkit, which is available on the website for designing posts and videos, has also reached over 10,000 people.

Key Lessons

During the implementation of the first phase of ITAC in 2021, a number of challenges were identified. As the initial launch, the campaign was overstretched, both from a resource perspective and in terms of the scope of activities it encompasses, and could benefit from a more focused approach. It relied heavily on in-kind support of the four “take-over” leads and IOM to generate momentum online. Second, aspects of the campaign that have been less successful include the crowdsourcing of story submissions from individual members of the public, and the pledge function. Third, the campaign benefited from a great deal of engagement from stakeholder groups like youth, business, local governments and civil society, but national government participation remained low in 2021, even among countries in the GFMD Working Group. Beyond social media engagement, it proved difficult to measure the campaign’s impact on “moving the needle” on public perceptions about migrants and refugees.

Building on its lessons learned and success from 2021, ITAC Co-Chairs created a 2022-2023 concept strategy to address the key challenges. First, ITAC developed a promotion strategy and hosted virtual expert dialogues (journalists, communicators, researchers) to improve the quality of messages, find new ways of shaping online public perceptions, and attract wider interest from stakeholders, particularly among national governments. Second, ITAC 2022-2023 worked with influencers who shared ITAC messaging through their social media networks during public live chats to reach and influence the public (e.g. around International Migrants Day in December 2022). While ITAC was global in scope, the 2022-2023 campaign incorporated a number of activities and events targeted towards key geographic regions.

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

Canada and the Co-Chairs continue to seek support in building-up and extending ITAC. There are several ways that countries and organizations can support ITAC, as well as work to promote balanced public narratives globally:

• Use the #ItTakesACommunity and #ITAC hashtag and post content through national social media platforms about how migrants and refugees contribute positively or integrate successfully into communities in your country and submit these stories to the global campaign website to amplify your great work internationally.

• Promote ITAC to your country’s domestic audiences like local governments, business, civil society groups, or youth-led organizations, to help grow the campaign and engage more people in speaking up about the importance of creating inclusive communities. For example, Canada contributes to ITAC domestically through its Immigration Matters campaign, which aims to use stories supported by facts to show how communities across the country benefit from immigration.

Innovation

ITAC is a pioneering initiative. While most campaigns use traditional media sources to communicate on migration, ITAC is fully online and involves sharing positive stories about the contributions of migrants and refugees to society. It provides engaging online content and customizable digital resources for use by governments, cities, businesses, civil society organization, youth groups and other partners, to share social media posts (e.g. videos, photos, quotes). ITAC does not have government branding; instead, the participatory approach is its strength.

Beyond public engagement, has hosted virtual expert dialogues with communication practitioners and created of an online global hub of resources and information about how to balance migration narratives. These activities have helped to build a “community of practice” to share knowledge and expertise about “on the ground” realities, successes, and failures of individual campaigns to better design and implement the global campaign.

Additional Resources

It Takes A Community

Videos

Social Media Toolkit

GFMD Communications Guide on Shaping Public Narratives on Migration (2020)

Date submitted:

02 April 2022

Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.