Divided by the Sea is a collection of multimedia stories about the Mediterranean refugee crisis and its impact on the small city of Reggio Calabria in Southern Italy.

Questions around migration and global mobility are some of the most pressing of our time.

Through this project we seek to provide a platform for intimate and humane stories from both those who are migrating, as well as the communities that are seeing an unprecedented influx of people.

Launching the website is the first step in the creation of Divided by the Sea. We hope to bring the stories back to Reggio Calabria, to translate the website into multiple languages and to continue to expand this platform and add more voices to conversation. If you want to support the project please get in touch with us.

Finally, you will notice that in our stories we use the term refugee and not migrant. This was a deliberate decision on our part. A refugee is considered someone who is forced to leave their home because of an imminent threat – whether that is political, environmental or economic among many reasons. An immigrant chooses to leave his or her home to seek better opportunities.

Though we recognize that the terms are different, the Mediterranean migration route has been mostly used by refugees, with Syrians being the largest group making the crossing.

Furthermore, the two terms are politically charged and we have chosen not to assign the terms to the people we met along the way. After all, even if individuals choose to leave their homes for a better life, making the dangerous crossing speaks a lot about the risks they are willing to take for better opportunities. It is not our place to judge who is deserving of the term refugee.

If you want to get in touch, please email us at contact@dividedbythesea.com.