There has never been a project like this in European media before. On June 20 (World Refugee Day), a special edition of Gazeta Wyborcza was published across Poland, with all texts written by refugees and migrants living in the country.

Wyborcza changed its logo and name to “Gazeta Uchodźców” (“Gazette for Refugees”) for the day to emphasise that Poland, previously a mono-ethnic state, is now a country of refugees.

Not only has it offered shelter to Ukrainians fleeing war, but also opened its doors to refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan. Sadly, they did not always feel comfortable here.

Raising public awareness

The main aim of our campaign was to raise public awareness of the migration problem. We also took up the fight against the prejudice spread for years by the populists in power and the far right, centred around the claim that refugees are a mortal threat to Poland’s security and prosperity.

Instead, we objectively described the challenges related to migration, resulting, for example, from cultural differences. Besides, our objective was to prove to Poles that confronting the issue of migration in a serious manner is inevitable, that refugees are people with great potential and that Polish society can profit from such new citizens.  

“Gazeta Uchodźców” focused entirely on migration, from the first page to the last. It maintained the traditional newspaper division into thematic sections (Poland, world, culture, sport, etc.), and we also set up a special Web site at Wyborcza.pl dedicated to this project.

We gave the floor to journalists who are migrants and refugees so that they could present their personal narratives, the stories of their families and friends who relocated to Poland, and stories of people still living and fighting for survival in their home countries.

We also wanted to find out how migrants perceive our country and to let them tell us what they consider the bright and dark sides of living among us Poles. All in all, we intended to offer our readers the broadest perspective possible.  

More than a dozen two-person teams consisting of a refugee or migrant journalist (from countries including Ukraine, Belarus, Yemen, Eritrea, Cuba, Yemen, Vietnam, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Russia) and a Gazeta Wyborcza journalist were formed for the project. These tandems published more than 100 texts on the dedicated Web page, Wyborcza.pl/GazetaUchodzcow.

We also produced 12 video reports and 10 podcasts, as well as a Webinar on how to write and talk about migration.  

A far-reaching message

The print edition of “Gazeta Uchodźców,” which was published on World Refugee Day and featured a selection of articles, had a circulation of 50,000 copies. The texts, podcasts, and videos published had around 1 million views on the Wyborcza.pl Web page alone, not including the reach on social media or podcast platforms.

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