Musicking with international migrants: A literature review of strategies and facilitators’ narratives in participatory music practices

Abstract

Over the past decades, facilitators have increasingly engaged international migrants in a diverse array of participatory music activities, including composing, performing, and listening to music. This literature review offers a comprehensive analysis of the musical dimensions underpinning such practices. Drawing on Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) methodology, we examined 77 peer-reviewed studies published over the last 15 years, focusing on participatory music initiatives involving international migrants in Western contexts (Europe, the United Kingdom, North America, and Oceania). Our synthesis explores both the ways in which participants engage in musicking and the rationales behind facilitators’ selection of musicking strategies. The analysis identifies four primary musicking strategies – musical reproduction, co-creation, co-composition, and participatory listening – each of which encompasses varying degrees of centralized and decentralized musical leadership. Facilitators’ narratives for employing these strategies coalesce around six overarching narrative categories: personal development, social cohesion, inclusion, acculturation, aesthetics, and activism. Notably, the study finds no one-to-one correspondence between specific musicking strategies and facilitators’ narratives. Instead, the findings underscore the need for critical awareness regarding the musical choices made in participatory contexts and highlight the dual function of participatory musicking as both a transformative and a reproductive practice. This review holds relevance for facilitators and researchers concerned with participatory music practices involving international migrants. It aims to support reflective practice and informed decision-making among all stakeholders engaged in this field.