What does it mean to study migration when the researchers themselves have experienced it? This question sat at the centre of YOUROPE’s contribution to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Summer School in Prague, where the project’s participatory approach sparked new thinking about how migration research is taught and conducted.

Patricie Kyslíková and Salim Murad from the University of South Bohemia led an engaging workshop on Community-Led Research and Action (CLRA), presenting research outcomes from young researchers participating in the YOUROPE project. They explored how CLRA methodologies can enrich migration studies curricula, including the prestigious Erasmus Mundus EMMIR programme — demonstrating that this approach does not just study migration from the outside. It amplifies the voices of those who have lived it.

Creative methods that shift the narrative

The workshop introduced participants to a range of practical CLRA techniques through which young researchers reclaim their own narratives and challenge stereotypes. These included mapping public spaces to reframe their environments; creating songs that express personal stories; and developing photo and video projects that shift perspectives and challenge assumptions.

What distinguishes these methods is that they place young people in control. Rather than being the subjects of someone else’s research, they become the researchers — asking the questions that matter to them, in forms that feel authentic.

From personal stories to systemic change

CLRA projects serve a dual purpose. They offer young people experiencing marginalisation a space to be heard and to build agency, while simultaneously generating powerful advocacy tools for broader social change. In migration contexts especially, this matters: the voices most absent from policy discussions are often those with the most at stake.

The workshop made clear that changing who holds the research tools changes the stories that get told — and the IOM Summer School offered a compelling audience to hear them.