Our Head of Communications, Ángela de Miguel, presented the book The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees at the Complutense University of Madrid this morning.

After sharing the book’s main conclusions, students from the Faculty of Communication analysed the different stories portrayed in the films The Swimmers and Simón, two productions that explore the complex reality of migration. The first follows two young Syrian women striving to reach Germany to compete as swimmers in the Olympic Games. In Simón, the protagonist is a young Venezuelan man who, after suffering torture at the hands of his country’s regime for thinking differently, flees to the United States.

One of the students shared her own experience, recounting how she left Venezuela in 2015 due to threats and extortion against her family. She witnessed friends lose their lives for protesting in the streets. First, she lived in Italy and then moved to the United States. Finally she settled in Spain, where she was warmly welcomed. She is now 22 and works 40 hours a week while studying full-time to afford her accommodation, education, and to send money to her family. A real story told in the first person.

These lives, alongside the testimonies gathered in our publication, share a common thread: the uprootedness and instability that departure entails for the 413 million migrants worldwide. The reasons for leaving may vary, but all of them face difficult environments and hard experiences. This highlights the essential need for adaptation or integration to achieve personal and professional development, enabling them to start anew and attain the stability they long for.

In analysing the messages these films convey, students considered the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights enshrined in the Spanish Constitution. This reflection underscored the vulnerability of those forced to migrate and how only by regaining a stable home and their dignity can they truly begin again.

See the event here.