Distance Unkown

Visualizing Migration: A Money Tapestry

Distance Unknown exhibition at the ECC Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab, photography by Matteo Losurdo.

Migration is full of distances unknown — how far, costly, mentally and physically straining the journey will be for migrants, as they separate from their home, their country and the family they love. Migrants take on many risks and opportunities, yet it is clear that: migration is not a choice, food insecurity drives migration, migration costs are high, and migration creates benefits for both countries of origin and the places they find new homes. Findings derived from data analysis helped to communicate that migrants from Central America spent US$ 2.2 billion to migrate in 2020-2021, and while both the United States and the countries in which they left both benefited, the migrants took on all of the risk.

 We wanted to visualize migration stories beyond national borders by illustrating narratives through the data and maps at regional, continental and global scales. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Civic Data Design Lab (CDDL) designed an exhibit with digital and physical visualizations encouraging visitors to engage in migrants’ experiences more fully. The exhibit, “Distance Unknown,” combines data and design to change the policy debate around Central American Migration. The project communicates the migrants’ conditions using two unique datasets collected from 5,000 households in Central America and over 2,100 migrants making their journey between the Darien gap in Colombia to the border of Mexico. Previously debuted at the United Nations World Food Programme Headquarters in Rome in 2022 and featured at the European Cultural Centre’s Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023, Distance Unknown will be on display in Vienna, Austria, between November 6-15, 2025 at the University of Applied Arts Vienna as part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Visualization & Visual Analytics Arts Program (IEEE VISAP) conference centered around Collective Care.

The motivational tapestry, a physical data visualization of “migrant money,” represents the root causes of migration and the cost that migrants bear with their journey. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab, photography by Matteo Losurdo.

Collaborating closely with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the CDDL research team designed interactive visualizations to illustrate key findings through a website and an exhibition and to enhance communication of findings about the root causes of migration. One wall of the exhibition features a vibrant tapestry, made of woven paper currency, as a physical data visualization that represents the complex motivations and costs of migration from Central America. For many migrants, the path is not a choice, but a difficult decision of necessity. Measuring approximately 15’ W x 8’ H, the tapestry visualizes the root causes of migration from Central America through the color of each square. Primarily driven by economic motivations (80%, blue), migrants seek to support their family’s basic needs by sending remittances, which are primarily spent on food and shelter. Some migrants also feel pressure to emigrate because of security concerns (purple), the effects of climatic shocks (green), quality of life (yellow), and reunification with family members (orange) who have already migrated.

Migrants work on folding bills into modules, which will then be woven into zigzag strips and sewn together to comprise the tapestry. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab, photography by Matteo Losurdo.

With the help of Casa Tochan, a non-profit that supports Central American migrants in Mexico City, thirteen Latin American migrants crafted this physical data visualization of “migrant money.” This partnership with Casa Tochan meant that migrants themselves assisted with the production of the tapestry, a physical manifestation that visualizes their hopes, dreams and risks along the way. The weaving pattern is inspired by techniques used by Venezuelans to transform inflated Venezuelan Bolivar banknotes into handbags or wallets. The migrants who helped make the tapestry visualization also shared personal stories through recorded interviews displayed in the exhibit.

Each individual bill highlights a different issue concerning migrants, including the high cost of migration, the importance of remittances and the risks they face. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab, photography by Matteo Losurdo.

The money within the tapestry illustrates how migration comes at high costs. In 2021, Central American migrants collectively spent USD 2.2 billion to migrate to the United States. Raising funds through loans mostly from relatives and friends, the money spent by migrants is comparable with government spending on primary education. For example, Guatemalan migrants spent US$ 1.2 billion to migrate, while their government spent US$ 1.3 billion on primary education. Each individual bill highlights a different issue concerning migrants: the high cost of migration, the importance of remittances, migrants’ contribution to multiple economies, the risks they face and the fact that most migrants would prefer to stay home. The bills were folded into squares representing one migrant from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras, with data from the WFP survey.

A visitor demonstrates scanning a piece of the tapestry to explore that migrant’s story, motivations for migrating, and cost burden on the interactive touch screen. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab, photography by Matteo Losurdo.

Visitors are invited to scan a piece of the tapestry at a touch-screen station, where the story of that migrant appears. This allows visitors to dive deeper into the causes of migration by learning more about why an individual migrant family in the study left their home, their household circumstances and their personal stories. The interactive visualization on screen is connected to the migration.mit.edu website visualizes the key findings from the report—Charting a New Regional Course of Action: The Complex Motivations and Cost of Central American Migration—made in collaboration between the MIT Civic Data Design Lab, UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

Distance Unknown advocates to expand legal pathways for migrants. Research from this project and the related report were cited in a letter signed by 33 U.S. senators recommending equitable action be taken to support humanitarian needs in Central America. This letter appealed for Temporary Protected Status designations for the northern countries in Central America, and ultimately contributed to policy action in June 2022, when Vice President Kamala Harris announced the Call to Action for Northern Central America. Data visualization techniques in this project were designed to enhance the communication of this migration study for policy makers and broader audiences. Because findings from similar studies are typically summarized in report format and disseminated in presentations, creatively humanizing the data allowed policy makers to self-discover insights through interactive mediums and made the information more accessible and trusted.

This map visualizes where migrants started their migration journey, originating from 43 countries and many of which arrive in Latin America before traveling north by land towards their destination. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab.

Another exhibit features an interactive map which allows visitors to explore the journeys and barriers that migrants face along the way. Data from this map draws from a second WFP survey in 2022, in which 2,109 migrants from 43 countries were interviewed at four border locations in Central America: Colombia, at the border of Panama’s Darien Jungle, Honduras and Guatemala. These migrants have made their way to the Colombia–Panama border from all over the world before starting the surveyed migration trail. Migrants on their journey through Central America originated from 43 countries, from as far away as Senegal, Guinea and China. The majority of interviewed migrants on the path came from Cuba (41%) and Venezuela (18%), followed by Haiti (9%).

This map illustrates a migrant pathway through the treacherous jungle of the Darien Gap, at the border between Colombia and Panama. Each arrow and its size represents one migrant’s accumulated cost to migrate at this point of their journey. Credit: MIT Civic Data Design Lab.

For many migrants, the most challenging part of the journey is crossing the Darien Gap. This remote, roadless border between Colombia and Panama consists of a dense jungle with treacherous terrain, and many migrants pay guides to help them with this passage. Most migrants are unprepared for their journey and are surprised by the considerable cost and supplies necessary for their long passage. The global migration routes shown on the screen tell their stories.

Bringing together qualitative stories and quantitative data with these visualizations, enabled the WFP Executive Director David Beasley to put migration on the agenda at the annual World Food Programme Executive Board in June 2022, reaching an audience of United Nations ambassadors, member nations of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and national officials. Distance Unknown had such a memorable impact on Beasley that he planned a visit to the Darien in Panama to raise further awareness to issues of migration in Central America with his advocacy platform. The increased visibility for the topic of Central American migration, has led to further collaboration between other teams at WFP in collaboration with the Civic Data Design Lab, with focuses on West Africa migration and Venezuelan migrants in Ecuador. 

Continued and innovative data visualization has the potential to be a powerful persuasive tool for humanitarian advocacy, especially for an issue like migration. Framing data narratives around the complexities of migration can be communicated with values of empathy to effectively position data-driven evidence as support for political policy. Featuring a handwoven tapestry visualizing the root causes of migration, an interactive digital map visualizing migrant journeys and audible videos of migrant interviews, the Distance Unknown exhibition provides a sensory experience with multiple entry points, which helps the public understand the complexity of migration and can lead to informed policy decisions and advocacy.