A book featuring ten conversations with taxi drivers from around the world is the authors' attempt to counterbalance fake news and curtail prejudices against migrants and migration. "Passaggi Migranti" (Migrant Rides) was written by the Italian journalists Chiara Longo Bifano and Stefano Natoli and published by Castelvecchi. The book looks at migration through the eyes of taxi drivers, who tend to be “the condensed version of public opinion” in society.

Facts emerge through telling stories

The idea of using ten conversations with taxi drivers as a starting point for the book arose from hearing a short, moving story which centered on a refugee, a woman and a taxi driver, told by Pope Francis on October 26, 2016. “We tried to write a book with facts, numbers and data, but these do not end up getting through to people,” says Longo Bifano. “We continue to speak about fake news and about a lack of intermediation, but what is really missing from the discussion is real dialogue, the experience part.” 

Using a taxi driver as a narrative device is meant to convey a feeling of ''staying in a closed space with a person whose job is moving humans from one part of the city to another, where migrants are concentrated,” says Longo Bifano. It’s meant to “create a dialogue that springs from the prejudices of the taxi driver that evolved from conversations with many people,” and then proving them false by meeting migrants face-to-face.

The first dialogue, entitled 'Immigrazione all'Amatriciana', speaks about “a taxi driver who thinks that all migrants are lodged in four-star hotels while Italians are under the rubble of the earthquake,” which occurred in central Italy last January. In turn, this prejudice brings to light the actual figures who work in the migrant reception system in Italy. “It is not an easy approach, but solutions are found through dialogue and wariness is overcome,” says Longo Bifano.

Dialogues that open hearts up to the facts

The dialogues “are real stories built in the cities” of the world, from Krakow to Buenos Aires and from Milan to Brussels. The conversations introduce each book chapter, and are followed by “very dense reflections with a plethora of current data in order to develop ideas on the situation in Africa and on the issue of migrants in the US and Europe”, says Longo Bifano, with special attention paid to Italy “in terms of the numbers and social and economic effects.”

From her viewpoint as a journalist and writer, Longo Bifano notes that “the facts are essential, but alone do not reach the public, since messages now must contain an emotional element.” The narrative tool – the conversations with taxi drivers – “enables a more in-depth look,” she says, beginning with a story “that opens up hearts.” At the end of the book, the authors underscore that “immigration will not be stopped,” and that it is necessary to deal with the causes, create safe channels for migration, change the prevailing narrative about migration, grant citizenship and fight prejudices. “Migration is global,” the authors stress, ''and must be dealt with at the global level.''