Hosted by Sonita Mbah. Produced by J’aime Rothbard.

When migrants arrive in host countries, authorities tend to assume that it’s up to the newcomers to adapt — not the other way around.

What if we could create cultures of welcome to support a two-way process — where both migrants and hosts embrace opportunities to learn and adapt?

In this episode, Colombian philosopher turned culture change researcher Ana María Araos and co-host Sonita Mbah explore the Pocket Project’s new Cultures of Welcome programme.

Launched this month in Germany, where both Ana María and Sonita live, this initiative supports organisations, leaders and migrant communities to build the relational capacities needed to allow a true sense of welcome and belonging to emerge.

As fellow migrants living in Berlin, Sonita and Ana María explore the growing challenges facing migrants in Germany — where 25.2 million people of the country’s population of 83.7 million have a migrant or refugee background. 

Ana María recounts how she first moved to Germany in 2011 then returned to Colombia nine months after her daughter was born in 2015. Having moved back to Germany in August, 2023, Ana María has seen how political changes in the country have negatively impacted migrants, many of whom live with a growing sense of insecurity and fear. 

Ana María and Sonita explore both the opportunities for connection and the challenges they have experienced integrating into German society — and envision a future of reciprocity where both migrants and host cultures can help each other to thrive.

This dialogue provides a moving insight into the complexities migrants face in building new lives and shows how the kind of resilience practices offered by the Pocket Project are being adapted to tackle pressing global challenges.

Further Resources:

Cultures of Welcome

Sensata  (Ana María’s research consultancy) 

Ana María’s on LinkedIn

Resilience Program 

About Ana María Araos:

Ana María is a Colombian philosopher turned culture change researcher, driven by one question: How is collective change actually possible?

Since 2013, she has helped organizations and governments design, implement, and measure collective change initiatives. In 2019, she founded Sensata Research to reinvent data collection — moving away from extractive methods that consume people’s time, attention, and cognitive effort — and began supporting changemakers across Latin America with evidence-based insights.

In 2023, Ana María moved to Berlin. There, she confronted her own complicity in a model of research rooted in prediction, control, and objectivity. She is now transitioning toward a practice that honors the interconnectedness of all beings, an inquiry that pursues resonance and collective wisdom.

Today, Sensata Research operates from Berlin, helping changemakers build monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems that allow organizations to be transformed by the encounters with the very people they seek to serve.