Roots & Routes: Youth Archiving Europe’s Migration Memories

Roots & Routes: Youth Archiving Europe’s Migration Memories is a transnational, community-driven project that brings overlooked European histories into public memory by placing the people and communities concerned at the centre of the storytelling process.

Across Europe, the histories of Roma communities, People of African Descent (PAD), migrants and LGBTIQ communities have often remained fragmented, private or absent from mainstream historical narratives. Roots & Routes works to recover and safeguard these memories, transforming personal testimonies and community experiences into accessible forms of living heritage.

Through oral history, intergenerational dialogue and creative digital storytelling, the project connects local experiences with a wider European narrative. Activities take place across Belgium, Greece, Spain, Slovakia, Austria and Italy, bringing remembrance into community spaces, youth environments, cultural institutions and museums.

The European added value and strategic impact of the project are built upon three main pillars:

• Recovering hidden and underrepresented histories: preserving community memories that have often been excluded from or insufficiently represented in mainstream European remembrance.
• Empowering young people as authors of remembrance: giving young people the skills and opportunities to collect, interpret and share the histories of their communities.
• Connecting local memories across Europe: creating links between different communities and countries to contribute to a more inclusive and shared understanding of European history.

The project combines training, community storytelling and creative remembrance activities across six European countries. Young people and community members will work together to collect and preserve personal and collective memories, transforming them into accessible digital and cultural formats. These local stories will then be connected through shared European initiatives, including exhibitions, digital storytelling tools and public events. Part B

.

Expected outputs:

• Training resources supporting young people and community multipliers in collecting and sharing memories.
• Community stories and creative content documenting underrepresented experiences and histories.
• Digital and cultural remembrance tools making these stories accessible to wider audiences across Europe.
• Public events and exhibitions encouraging dialogue around migration, identity, inclusion and European remembrance.
• European exchange and policy recommendations supporting more inclusive approaches to remembrance.

The project primarily targets young people aged 18–30 from Roma, People of African Descent, migrant and LGBTIQ communities, while also involving youth workers, educators, NGOs, cultural institutions and other community actors. Through intergenerational and intercultural exchange, Roots & Routes aims to strengthen young people’s participation in remembrance and ensure that diverse community histories become part of Europe’s shared cultural memory.

.