The project, which is supported by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and coordinated by the European Journalism Centre, will follow four groups of people - one in each country - as they settle in new communities, focusing on how they are adapting to their new lives, the challenges they are facing and what they miss from home.
In Britain, the Guardian will be following the story of a nine-year-old Afghan boy who fled the Taliban with his parents and six siblings but became separated from all but his father along the way. Through film, news articles and social media updates, readers will be able to follow their story as they start their new lives in Derby, knowing nothing of their missing relatives, and little about their adopted country and their future here.
Mark Rice-Oxley, special projects editor, Guardian News & Media, said: “The Guardian has extensively covered the perilous journeys made by hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe, and The New Arrivals will turn our focus to how they are settling into their new lives. We’re pleased to be joining with Le Monde, El País and Spiegel Online on such an important and ground-breaking project and look forward sharing the stories of those affected with our readers.”
Throughout the duration of the project, the four media organisations will be working closely together - swapping stories, posting updates on social channels and websites and making films about the issue - in an attempt to understand what is the best way to handle refugees, what these uprooted people value about their new homes and what they find strange or unwelcome.
In Germany, Spiegel Online will follow a large Syrian family who left Damascus and have now regrouped in a flat in Lüneburg. France’s Le Monde are covering the story of a Sudanese family who are to be resettled in the French interior, and in Spain El País will be focusing on a group of six youths from Cameroon, Morocco, Bolivia and Senegal who have been playing in a local football team in the Andalusian town of Jerez de la Frontera.
