LEFÖ had the pleasure of attending the two-day stakeholder workshop hosted and organized by Viena Latina in the Frida Kahlo Saal of the Austrian Latin American Institute on May 28th and 29th. The two-day event, titled “Migration in Europe: Experiences in dialogue,” aimed to bring Viena Latina’s project findings into dialogue with its civil society partners who wanted to engage in a broader conversation about migration in Vienna. Together, LEFÖ and representatives from other organizations discussed the future of Viena Latina, as well as possible alliances and strategies between civil society organizations, from migrant organizations to schools and German language programs, working to identify what is actually working within the Austrian integration system, how to strengthen those elements, and at the same time honestly naming the negative practices embedded in Austria’s sociopolitical infrastructure, in order to develop approaches that civil society can bring to the table on the topics of integration, migration, and community building.
The two-day workshop also laid out the founding vision of Viena Latina: a participatory project built to surface the history and memory of Latin American and Caribbean migration in Vienna through four methods: oral history, photovoice, Stadtspaziergänge, the building of a virtual archive, and community mobilization, all in service of documenting the full breadth of diverse migration experiences. Out of this grows a layered, multifaceted picture of Latin American migration in this city.
Whilst some of the experiences and findings discussed during the workshop painted a sobering picture of the current state of the world, the event as a whole was grounded in a deep sense of solidarity, built by a room full of people who show up every day to make visible the rich, intercultural heritage of Vienna, shaped by the many lived experiences of migrants who make this city what it is. Mindmaps were drawn, debates were had around deep-seated societal problems, and through it all, hopeful horizons for the future were imagined together.
