Borderlines

In Borderlines we want to bring to light experiences of people that are often forgotten, ignored, or avoided in media and politics.

How do we give voice to you, those who are not heard?

step 1

When we meet you, or when you reach out to us, we will first ask you to briefly describe what happened and how you would prefer to share your feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Together, we will decide how we will talk.

There are many ways to do this:

  • chatting (the most common way we use), either semi-structured (with the main questions the same for everyone) or as a free discussion
  • group chatting
  • inviting us to an event or forum / chat where we will observe what people talk about and may also chat with them
  • sending photos and videos and telling us what they mean to you, how they show what happened to you
  • sending us your paintings or other things you made and what you wanted to express
  • walking together to a place that is important in what happened to you and you telling us what happened there and how you felt

or other methods

Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦/Unsplash

step 2

Before arranging everything, we will ask you whether you want us to present your story anonymously or openly.

Many NGOs in Finland choose to anonymize what people tell them in every case, even when people understand the risks but still want to be visible. We believe this is unjust. Such practices create unequal relationships: NGOs decide for migrants about their visibility regardless of what migrants want.

We value equal relationships and justice in how we interact with each other. That’s why if there are potential risks in being visible (for example, your name, location, or other details being openly seen in our posts), we will ask you about them, investigate the situation, and explain all the potential risks. If you still decide to be open, we will respect your choice and publish your personal information.

We value equal relationships and justice in how we interact with each other. That’s why if there are potential risks in being visible (for example, your name, location, or other details being openly seen in our posts), we will ask you about them, investigate the situation, and explain all the potential risks. If you still decide to be open, we will respect your choice and publish your personal information.

If you want to be anonymous, we will remove personal information about you and others and replace it with made-up details:

  • your and others’ name, age
  • where you and others live and lived, places you and others visited (unless the post is about some specific place)
  • your face (will be blurred in all photos and videos)
  • some characteristic features (tattoos, specific voice, distinctive hairstyle or clothes will be blurred)
  • we also cannot publish documents that Finnish authorities oblige you or other people to keep secret

step 3

After talking to you, we will analyze what you told us, identify the main themes, and try to see how they are connected to immigration laws and society in general. To do this we will study social scientists’ work and may consult social science professionals to advise us on relevant literature or check the texts we wrote.

In the text, we will use quotes from what you told us.

step 4

After this, we will show you how we used your quotes and the whole text. We approach you as a co-writer of our post: you can ask us to change, remove, or add your quotes, or correct how we explained them.

When everything looks okay, we will send you an informed consent form confirming that you are comfortable with us posting information about you.

We also understand that the situation in the place you left for Finland may unpredictably change, as can immigration policies in Finland. This can make you feel unsafe about what we posted. That’s why you can ask us to remove your information at any time.

step 5

Our work doesn’t necessarily finish with the article

If you are a member of a grassroots group / NGO or an activist, we are more than happy to help you if you want! When you invite us to help, Borderlines members will avoid offering direct solutions or deciding on behalf of members (this would also mean a power imbalance). Instead, we can do work that makes what people want to do easier, for example:

  • brainstorming on how to show others what you faced in life in the best way
  • being facilitators in meetings / discussions
  • informing about methods of social change in general, finding decision makers, making a stakeholder analysis
  • helping with collecting information