MIGRANT
MESSAGES
"The conversations happened on WhatsApp. So does the journalism."
REGIONAL CENTRE FOR BORDER HEALTH
+
NOGALES
KINO BORDER INITIATIVE
US–MEXICO BORDER · OCTOBER 2024
YUMA, ARIZONA · NOGALES · US–MEXICO BORDER
A WHATSAPP THREAD.
AS JOURNALISM.
"Migrant Messages presents the stories of people who chose legal migration into the United States through the border with Mexico. The interviews were conducted at the Regional Centre for Border Health in Yuma, Arizona, and the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales.
The project was written by Mania Modzelan, with photographs by Ron Haviv and Marcin Suder. It was produced by Jakub Górnicki as part of Crossing Points — an investigation into migration through lived experience."
INNOVATION BORN
OUT OF LIMITATION.
"Each bus brought around 50 people. They had four hours at the Yuma welcome center before dispersing across the country. Reporters could reach 5 to 7 people in that window. Of those, 90 percent agreed to stay in touch. But only one in three continued talking after they left.
The math was unforgiving. To reach 20 complete stories, the team needed to contact over 100 migrants at the source. So they came back in October 2024 — two reporters, every arriving bus."
"INNOVATION IS BORN OUT OF LIMITATION."
— JAKUB GÓRNICKI · CROSSING POINTS
YOU DON'T READ
ABOUT THEM.
YOU READ WHAT
THEY WROTE.
"The design mimics the familiar interface of any messenger app. Readers browse a grid of names and faces — first names only. They open a conversation. They read. The journalist disappears.
Nobody had built a journalism project this way before."
"YOU DON'T READ ABOUT GISSELA.
YOU READ WHAT GISSELA WROTE."
— MIGRANT MESSAGES · OUTRIDERS · GAZETA.PL · 2024