Through our empirical research, we intend to document the experiences of people who have moved from rural Mongolia to the country's capital city: Ulaanbaatar (UB). We will be compiling accounts of people's journeys; the reasons for them leaving; the challenges they faced along the way, and the outcomes of their decision to migrate.
Specifically, we are interested in the outcomes of migration on wellbeing. We have chosen to focus on this because of the lack of academic literature on the wellbeing effects on humans who have migrated to UB. Producing evidence of the challenges faced by people is the first step towards highlighting the potential gaps in services and access for people to meet their needs.
We hope to collate this data into a report when we have finished our expedition. This report will be presented to all of the NGOs who were involved in our study.
Using the power of film to visually document a changing Mongolia
Migration of people from rural to urban areas in Mongolia is a reflection of changing societal structures. People, for reasons the empirical data we collect will reveal, are choosing to move in search of a different kind of life. However, different generations in Mongolian society have faced different journeys to arrive where they are today.
Film is an effective medium for communicating issues in an intimate and personal way. We hope that our film will connect people in other parts of the world to the humans who live in a remote, yet culturally vibrant country like Mongolia.
Our film intends to capture the lived experiences of different generations within urban and rural areas; for people to better understand the hopes, fears and dreams of people witnessing the change in Mongolia today.