EUROPA:  أوروپا 

An Illustrated Introduction to Europe for Migrants and Refugees

EUROPA, An Illustrated Introduction to Europe for Migrants and Refugees, is a collaborative guidebook spearheaded by Magnum Photos and published by Al-liquindoi in Nov. 2016. It was awarded the 2018 Royal Photographic Society’s Hood Medal for a body of photographic work produced to promote issues of public service or concern to society. Our team: Thomas Dworzak, Lisa De Bode (writer), Alia Malek, Jessica Murray, Arianna Rinaldo.

“EUROPA is a clear-sighted, beautifully straightforward, and deceptively simple introduction to the idea, history, and practicalities of Europe for people seeking asylum.” — Bookforum

We created EUROPA with the hope that this collaborative and independent book could be used as an educational tool to inform, engage, and facilitate community exchange. 

More than 5,000 hard copies were sent for free to migrants, refugees, and social workers in Greece, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. You can download the e-book, in Arabic, Farsi, French, and English, at Magnum Photos, and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. 

From nonprofit Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen in Brussels, Belgium, to the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) in the United States, EUROPA reached readers wherever migration remains contested, to:

"perform an act of welcome, which counters, in a most practical way, the anti-Europe discourse of nationalistic, right-wing parties on the rise all over the continent." — LARB

From La Repubblica, Italy, bearing the brunt of the crisis:

“One could be tempted to believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. This book, however, contains one thousand words — perhaps one hundred thousand, because it’s not easy explaining … that thing we call freedom.” — La Repubblica

From De Standaard, Brussels:

“De essentiële les die je uit dit boek kunt halen, is dat de Europese geschiedenis niet veel verschilt van de verhalen van de migranten van vandaag. Een kwart van de hedendaagse Europeanen is trouwens migrant, of heeft minstens een migrant als ouder.”

And from Le Figaro, France:

“EUROPA … est devenu l'ouvrage de référence pour expliquer aux migrants pourquoi l'Europe a décidé d'être ce qu'elle est.” — Le Figaro

Other reviews: The Economist, TIME, WBUR, The Guardian, De Standaard, ARTE, DW, Deutschlandfunk, VPRO, VRT, Global Voices.