Live Session 2: Everyday Cartography
Written by: Victoria Salazar, Mokhtar Ahmed & Storay Mohmand
Session contributions and insights by: Lulu Andare
(Note: This blog post is a co-created reflection from VOICIFY’s second “Migration & Belonging” Co-Creation Lab. The insights, quotes, and structural critiques presented below were generated collectively by the participants during our live session.)
Migration lines are invisible until we choose to draw them. When we arrive in a new city, the streets are just concrete and coordinates. It takes time, resilience, and a conscious effort to transform a foreign landscape into a place of belonging.
We decided to make our invisible lines visible by mapping our emotions, memories, and survival onto the physical streets of Europe. Archiving our lived experiences in this way is not just a geographic exercise. It is a political act. It challenges broader narratives and proves that belonging is an active, ongoing effort. As we looked at our pins scattered across Belgium, Germany, and Finland, we realized how these quiet routines connect our parallel lives.
“It was really interesting to see that even though we live in different countries and have different stories, we share many similar experiences. Seeing all our maps together made me feel that my journey is not only my own, but part of something bigger that connects us across Europe. It also made me realize that, in our own ways, we are all slowly connecting with our new surroundings and finding a sense of belonging.” (Storay)
Our connection to a city is built through everyday experiences. For Storay, the early months in Finland were a disorienting blur and heavily reliant on navigation apps. “Many places looked very similar to me. I often wondered if there would come a day when these places would feel familiar, and I could easily tell one from another.” Yet about a year later, specific places transformed into memory-laden waypoints, marking the moment the city truly became hers.
On the map, Storay marked Helsinki’s Oodi Central Library as the place she got her first library card in Finland, noting how it helped her “learn, meet people, and connect with my new community.”
Lulu similarly mapped spaces in Germany where she can seamlessly inhabit two worlds at once, crucial sanctuaries where she feels at home and where her race and ethnicity are never questioned. Alongside these spaces, she pinned a joyous, mundane milestone in Heidelberg.
Reflecting on her first Christmas Market experience, she wrote that she is “so looking forward to visiting it again this December!” These routines like getting a library card or returning to a favorite holiday market are crucial, active steps in claiming a city as one’s own.
While some spaces celebrate joyous routines, other coordinates that define our journeys are forged in extreme hardship. Mokhtar courageously pinned Brussels Airport as a deeply significant location. Having spent 48 days in airport close center for asylum without a mobile phone, he possesses only a single glass as a physical memento. His decision to proudly own and map this story is a powerful testament to resilience.
But the map also tracks the journey forward.
Mokhtar placed another pin at Encora in Antwerp, marking it as “The place where I learn Dutch and become more connected to Belgian society.” It is a profound shift from the isolation of the airport terminal to the active, hopeful integration into a new community.
To close our session, we gathered our thoughts in a final reflection round and asked one simple question: What are you leaving with?
Lulu is leaving with the realization that migration lines are invisible, struck by the beauty of our near-simultaneous timelines of arrival and our lives unfolding in parallel.
Mokhtar is leaving with optimism. Seeing his emotions mapped to geographic locations rather than just photos or videos surfaced memories from Istanbul to Prague, and he steps forward with a desire to have a positive impact in Belgium.
“Belgium is gradually becoming more than a place of protection for me; it is becoming a place of belonging and possibility. As I build my new life, I want not only to benefit from the opportunities I have received, but also to give something back. Through my education, experiences, volunteering, and engagement with others, I hope to contribute to Belgian society, support people who face their own challenges, and turn my journey into a source of positive impact. I move forward with gratitude for the present, hope for the future, and the belief that belonging is not only about finding a safe place to live, but also about having the freedom and opportunity to build, contribute, and dream again.” (Mokhtar)
Storay is leaving with the recognition of how much belonging she has quietly built. The exercise proved that connection to a city is built through everyday experiences in places that become meaningful over time.
“This exercise made me realize that belonging doesn’t happen all at once. It grows slowly through everyday experiences, the people we meet, and the places that become meaningful to us. When I think about my own journey, I remember how unfamiliar Helsinki felt in the beginning. I was just trying to find my way around and understand my new surroundings. But slowly, places became familiar; I made memories, met people, learned new things, and grew as a person. Now I see Helsinki differently. For me, belonging is not just about living somewhere. It is about feeling connected, being part of everyday life, and slowly finding your own place in the community. I hope readers can see that belonging grows through everyday life, through the people we meet, the places we return to, and the small experiences that slowly make a new place feel familiar and like home. ” (Storay)
Explore Our Map!
We invite you to view our Everyday Cartography and read the stories behind each location directly on our interactive Padlet: https://padlet.com/victoria1075/everyday-cartography-3ctuozc6wbhzungk
*Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this blog post are entirely those of the co-authors and contributing participants. They do not necessarily reflect the official policies, positions, or views of VOICIFY or its affiliated member organizations. VOICIFY provides the Co-Creation Labs as a platform for youth with lived migration experiences to safely share their insights and shape narratives.
