June 2026

Our Anas Alhalabi and Meghann Ormond travelled to Bergamo, Italy, this month to contribute to the training of Cooperativa Impresa Sociale Ruah's new group of Migrantour Bergamo intercultural companions during the 2026 Refugee Week. They were joined by colleagues Beatriz Goncalves Maciel from Associação Renovar a Mouraria's Migrantour Lisbon and Olga Senatorova Tisler from Terra Vera's Migrantour Ljubljana. 

In Bergamo, Ruah's Migrantour team has already developed intercultural walks and regularly runs workshops for schools, citizens, groups and institutions in addition to their wide variety of services and interventions supporting newcomers to the city. This 2026 training, funded by the European Union, aimed to rebuild and expand the group of intercultural companions, strengthening existing urban tour routes and preparing new rural ones in the mountains surrounding Bergamo.

Together, we explored how a Migrantour walk is built, how to build a community of practice among intercultural companions, urban transformation, how to develop non-exotifying narratives, how to engage with responsibly with places affected by tourism and gentrification, and how to personally connect with and each other landscapes through slow walking and sensory readings of place.

A very deep thanks to Ruah's Ammar Shawesh and Francesca Belotti for their truly inspiring ongoing efforts to bring Migrantour into a broader ecosystem supporting narrative change around migration in Bergamo, Italy and throughout Europe!

June 2026

How do stories about migration get told - and who gets to tell them? Our Jill Ahrens and Meghann Ormond presented a paper at the 2026 Tourism, Heritage & Memory conference at Wageningen University & Research exploring this question through the lens of Migrantour Utrecht.

Rather than presenting migration as a problem to be managed, Migrantour Utrecht tours create space to share lived experiences, local histories, and alternative perspectives on belonging, diversity, and place.

The paper shows that the tour script is not a fixed story. Since Migrantour Utrecht was founded in 2022, it has continually evolved through dialogue among intercultural companions, community members, and tour participants. What emerges is not a single account of migration, but an ongoing process of learning, negotiation, and reflection. 

At a time when migration is often discussed through polarized political debates, initiatives like Migrantour demonstrate how participatory, community-based storytelling can contribute to social cohesion, anti-racist practice, and greater recognition of diverse forms of knowledge and experience, creating opportunities for different perspectives to meet, challenge one another, and generate new understandings.

We'd be interested to hear from others working with #community #storytelling, #participatory #heritage, #migration, #tourism, and #publicpedagogy: How do you navigate the challenge of representing multiple perspectives without reducing complexity?

May 2026

One of the most beautiful aspects of being part of the global Migrantour network is the opportunity to connect across borders and continue to grow and develop our initiative.

Over the course of two inspiring days, Migrantour Utrecht had the absolute pleasure of hosting our colleagues from CESTIM's Migrantour Verona. The weekend was a beautiful chance to strengthen our network bonds, combining:

• A guided walking tour of Lombok led by our intercultural companion Ilya Genov

• An interactive empathy workshop led by our co-founder Meghann Ormond

• An interactive embodied conflict workshop through theater and movement led by our co-founder Fiona-Marie Hawes and intercultural companion Amaia Yoller

• A creative reflection lino workshop based on a wordless book led by our intercultural companion Carys Stirling and co-coordinator and intercultural companion Carol Pertuz

This visit was a fantastic chance to deepen our connections, learn from one another, and celebrate the incredible community we are building together. Thank you to Migrantour Verona and to our amazing Utrecht team.

May 2026

While public debates on #asylum and #migration often focus on crisis and scarcity, last week's article by OneWorld highlights how many local initiatives across the #Netherlands, including Migrantour Utrecht, are creating spaces of #encounter, mutual #learning, #participation, and #belonging. 

Many thanks for raising awareness about our initiative and those of many others, OneWorld!

May 2026

We had the pleasure of welcoming Positive Impact Tourism (PIT) at De Voorkamer to celebrate their 5th anniversary. For this occasion, our Meghann Ormond facilitated an interactive empathy workshop, inviting reflection, perspective-taking, and critical engagement with what empathy means. 

As part of the day, we also took part in a hands-on activity, creating blooming seed balls facilitated by our Jade Simonet and Fatemeh Asiri paired with small handwritten letters intended for residents of asylum-seeker centers (AZCs). Through this creative and meaningful exercise, we collectively tangibly explored empathy. The seed balls and notes were later brought to residents of AZC and placed in the soil together. 

To close the day, we shared a dinner cooked by Positive Impact Tourism with Joseph, a volunteer chef from De Voorkamer. Community members were invited to join the evening, in appreciation and celebration of their essential involvement with De Voorkamer. 

We are grateful for the continued collaboration with Positive Impact Tourism and for choosing Migrantour Utrecht as the place to mark their milestone. 

#SocialImpact #CommunityBuilding

April 2026

Our Caglar Dede attended the 2026 Migrantour Network Annual Meeting in Lisbon, attended by Migrantour representatives from 19 European cities across 7 countries.

In moments like these, the world truly seems like a place where borders don't matter. Through local coordinators and intercultural partners, this network of cities unites people from all over the world with the goal of promoting guided tours in culturally diverse urban and rural contexts, where the history of the place, the guides' journey, and cultural demonstrations of the territory intertwine. These were moments of sharing, learning, work, conviviality, friendship, and joy.

April 2026

What does bread mean to us? What stories does it carry? Our first Bread & Storytelling workshop brought together memories, conversation and reflections reminding us that the simplest things hold layered meanings. 

Through storytelling, drawing, collaging, and object arranging, we explored our personal connections to bread, how it travels with us, shapes our sense of home and holds moments of change and belonging.

These exchanges opened up reflections on broader food systems, while highlighting how something so everyday quietly connects us all.

In between stories, we shared fresh pan de bono, a Colombian bread, lovingly prepared by Carol, adding warmth and meaningful exchange to our gathering.

 This workshop is part of an ongoing series contributing to a broader project that may lead to the co-creation of a new bread route. Our next workshop will take place in Vlampijpstraat AZC and we are excited to continue discovering stories, connections and reflections that unfold around bread !