Dominant narratives on migration perpetuate stereotypes, stigmatize people, and justify restrictive mobility policies. Algorithmic systems have a powerful influence on how these narratives are spread, taken up, reinforced, or resisted. These mechanisms filter and curate information flows in unpredictable ways, as algorithmic processes are largely infrastructural and therefore hidden from the user’s experience. This is particularly impactful to migrants, whose voices and stories are already marginalized as they move from one terrain to another.

This presentation presents preliminary outcomes of a participatory, co-creation project the authors are undertaking with digital content creators to counter dominant narratives. Through immersive interviews followed by co-creation workshops, we iteratively explore with recent immigrant digital content creators in the Netherlands: How do digital content creation navigate identity formation and agency within algorithmically-driven digital media ecosystems? What tactics and tools might be used to resist negative narrative frames and build more complexity into how migrants are portrayed? By building a methodology that is focused on practical and applied techniques that can be used by communities themselves for action-oriented responses, this strategic intervention aims to further the field of mobility justice.

In addition to the methods, framework, and key findings, we also discuss the toolkit we are working on with our collaborating participants to help other recent immigrant content creators critically examine their own content and consider how to playfully generate potential counter narratives.