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Sonia (aged 41) was born in Poland and migrated to Greece
She studied Sociology and International relations at Master’s level before leaving Poland to work in politics at the European Parliament in Brussels. In 2018, she co-founded and is CEO of ReFocusMedia Lab in Lesbos, Greece.
Having worked in politics at the European Parliament in Brussels for a number of years, Sonia decided to move to humanitarian aid work first on the Serbian-Hungarian border before setting up Refocus Media Lab in Lesbos, Greece which provides education and skills in media and technology to young adult asylum seekers and refugees aged 18-22 to help them build careers and their own futures. She now moves between 3 ReFocus Media Labs in Lesbos and Athens (Greece) as well as Krakow in Poland helping to train young women and men in media and technology skills.
Sonia describes an awareness of migration from the time of the fall of communism in Poland when relatives and friends left to start new lives but she only really experienced the impact of migration when she worked in Serbia and witnessed the horrific effects of push backs and violence on asylum seekers at European borders. She describes a sense of hopelessness but was able to channel her energies into providing skills and hope for young adult asylum seekers and refugees.
During her interview, she declares: “And this was like one of those moments that … you feel like hopeless at some point, that there’s only that much you can do you know that like this was probably the moment I understood that I cannot really change this crisis. I cannot change it on a larger scale, that I can only have impact on individual lives, that is everything I can do right? But as an outcome of this experience, I decided I need something a little bit more positive that’s why we went more into skills training and education because you see the progress as well. You don’t only see the bad, you not only hear the horrible stories, but you get the good thing that happens from the progress as well..”
For Sonia, the object that best represents her migration experience is a documentary she produced and was made by refugees called ’Even after Death’.
Interview conducted by Elaine Moriarty on 6/11/23 (virtually)
To cite this interview, Moriarty, Elaine (6/11/23). Interview of Sonia (from Poland to Greece), length: 1:09.