The Berlin-based association for migrant-diasporic organizations in One World, moveglobal e.V., has published a policy article on the relationship between development NGOs and migrant organizations in its latest publication. In the detailed article, Lucía Muriel discusses, for example, the functionalization of migrants and current challenges in cooperation. In doing so, she finds courageous words and, for example, in the chapter “Attempting a Paradigm Shift,” makes clear demands on the development policy scene:

“We will not continue to tolerate the conditions of a colonial reality that is over 500 years old. This applies to all current discourses and practices, to theories, to debates and to the practice of work. We will no longer allow governmental and non-governmental representatives, full-time and voluntary actors, established or newly emerging sponsors to dictate our perspective on the field of migration and development. In concrete terms, this means that none of the various forms of sole power to shape, define and decide are permissible any longer. Rather, all actors, including those who have been successfully excluded so far, must set out and engage in new forms of cooperation, distribution of resources, and power to shape.” (S.17)

The article is rounded off by an epilogue “How I stand on the bridge-builders’ discourse” and a glossary, and is supplemented in the appendix by a contribution from Andreas Rosen of the Stiftung Nord-Süd Brücken.

The publication can be ordered from moveglobal e.V. for 9 euros.