Refugee Routes to Italy

The Stories Behind a Line is a visual presentation of six different refugees' journeys to Italy. This visualization uses simple lines to represent the nightmare journeys undertaken by six asylum seekers from their homes to Europe. These simple lines are used to show the geographical routes and the distances traveled by each refugee. Each journey line also serves as a visual metaphor through which each individual story can be told.

Each of the asylum seeker's journeys in The Stories Behind a Line is represented by its own individual journey line. These lines show the distance traveled, the number of days spent traveling and the methods of transportation of each refugee from their hometown to Italy. Each of the journeys is shown as a simple black line on a white background (although you can reveal the map behind each journey if you want). Red markers are placed along the lines which can be clicked to reveal the personal narrative behind each journey.

It is possible to switch between the geographically shaped lines to straight lines, with a more analytical view of the distances traveled. In this view the lines are converted to a straight strip map segment. These strip map segments break down the important stages in each refugee's journey and the distances between these stages.

You can learn more about how and why this visual representation of six refugee journeys was created in a Driven Journalism post by the visualization's authors. The Stories Behind a Line: A Visual Narrative of Six Asylum Seekers' Routes to Italy also explores some of the design and coding choices made in creating the visualization.