Good practices Poland

Workshop on migration - March 4, 2020 (duration: about 1.5 hour)

Work in international groups. Division into groups will take place on Monday, March 2, 2020.
Exercise 1.

Presentation of stories based on real events. These stories refer to the subject of migration and refugee in Europe. There are 7 stories and so students are divided into 7 groups. Each group receives one history for analysis.

Story 1:

Rean from Iran, 32 years old, refugee At 22 years old, Rean gets married and leaves Iran with her husband in search of freedom and in the hope of a better life. Rean and her husband want to reach the United States, but their visa applications are rejected, so they decide to go to Europe. They take a long and difficult journey. They pay smugglers who help them cross the border. Upon arrival, they apply for refugee status. For the next seven years, Rean and her husband await a decision. They spend these years in a center for asylum seekers. They are threatened with deportation to Iran. During their stay at the Rean center, they fight loneliness and the hardships of everyday life, making friendships and acting in artistic groups. After some time, Rean divorces her husband and submits a new application for refugee status in a new situation. She is eventually granted the status because, as a divorcee, she would not be accepted by Iranian society. She would be threatened with persecution or violence. Today, Rean no longer lives at the resort. He lives happily with a new partner and their newborn son Kehan.

Story 2:

Doré, 24, from Congo-Brazzaville, migrant Doré arrives in Europe from Congo-Brazzaville at the age of 8 and is abandoned by his mother. Although he then lives with relatives, he has no legal guardian and cannot obtain permanent residence. He has no passport and is currently in Europe on a renewable student visa. Doré is an award-winning acrobat and also runs his own club for young people. In the future, he would like to become a physical education teacher. His girlfriend, Fraucke is also a foreigner, but from a member state of the European Union. They plan to start a family together.

Story 3:

Adelina, 27 years old, from Kosovo, a refugee, then naturalized

Adelina came to the European Union at the age of 10, when the political situation in Kosovo deteriorated. Her father, a court clerk in Gjilan, remained under strong political pressure in his work. Feeling that there would soon be a conflict, he left home to apply for refugee status. In his new country he was granted refugee status and got a job at a fish processing factory. Later, his wife and two daughters joined him from Kosovo as part of a family reunification program. They also received refugee status. Today Adelina is a student and is writing a master's thesis in psychology. He already has citizenship in his new country. He returns to Kosovo to visit his family and his former country for the first time after 17 years. She explains the different emotions associated with this return and tries to imagine what her life would be like if her father had not escaped from the war.

Story 4:

Tino, 76 years old, Italian, post-war migrant. Tino is retired. He came to Belgium in 1949 as part of a family reunification program. His father was already a miner at the time. Escaping the post-war food shortage in Italy, Tino at the age of 16 became the youngest Italian working in a mine. He later married a Belgian with whom he had children. Then he worked in factories. Tino comes from the first wave of labor migrants who were needed in the post-war reconstruction of Europe. Some countries, such as Germany, France, England and Belgium suffered from a lack of workforce and had to introduce programs to attract labor migrants. People came from all over Europe as well as from other continents.

Story 5:

Alfredo, 33 years old and Veronica, 32 years old, Mexicans, highly qualified labor migrants. Both Alfredo and Veronica are doctors. They are married and have been living in Europe for a year. They arrived when Alfredo got a job in psychiatric examinations, which is his specialty. Veronica, a dermatologist, had previously worked in a hospital and had a private office in Mexico. Unfortunately, her academic qualifications have not been recognized in Europe and she cannot work as a doctor. However, she found another job. Both Alfredo and Veronica have experienced changes they did not expect: high living costs compared to their salary, difficulty finding housing, living away from family, etc. Alfredo and Veronica are examples of highly qualified employees that the European Union needs to fill gaps on the labor market. Both high and low qualified employees are in demand in many EU countries.

Story 6:

FLORIAN, 17 years old, ROMANIA

"I come from Romania. I often think about my country - it's beautiful. I think about my friends, family and home. I have been here alone for 8 months and I live in a hotel. Every day I go to school to learn a language. Then I have dance lessons, I learn modern Turkish dance. I like talking to my friends and I like going to discos to meet new people. Britney Spears is my favorite singer, I love music and songwriting. I play the accordion and the organ. Once I have learned the language, I would like to study and work in a production studio. "

Story 7:

HAWDIN, 17 years old, IRAQ

"My name is Hawdin. I am a refugee. I come from Kirkuk, a province in Iraq. I currently live in Europe. During the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, my father was killed. My mother died in 2001 after a serious illness. I have only one sister - she got married in Iraq. In Iraq I lived with my uncle on my father's side, far from political conflict and problems. I had a girlfriend. I loved her very much. She was everything to me. When I didn't see her one day, I was unhappy and I felt hopeless. We shared a lot with each other and thought about living together and building a paradise on earth. But Saddam's dictatorial regime did not let me live my own life and turned all hopes and desires into hell. On charges of help and work for the Kurdish party, I was arrested and tortured for 8 days by the Iraqi regime. My uncle released me on bail. 15 days after my arrest, my uncle was detained, so I escaped to Europe. I left Iraq for Syria and stayed there for 25 days. Then I got to Istanbul in a truck, stopped for 7 days, then got on to another truck. It was a difficult time for me: I only ate 4 times, I did not sleep, I felt bad. While driving, I didn't see daylight for 3 days. I felt insecurity and fear. I wanted to die. After 3 days I was told that I was in one of the largest European cities. I was very tired and did not know what to do. The agent referred me to the migration authorities and left me. I applied for refugee status and was treated with great respect. "

We write on the board:
asylum seeker, migrant, foreign student, illegal migrant, human smuggler, unaccompanied minor, refugee
We ask students if they know any of these concepts and whether they can define them. We explain these concepts if the students did not know them.
We ask students in groups to briefly explain the reasons why their hero left the country and what were his experiences with integration and discrimination. Each group should present their statements in the forum.

Exercise 2.

We divide students into 7 groups. Each group must stand in front of the class and tell (in the first person) an imaginary story about a migrant or refugee. The first student in each group begins a story to be continued by the next student in the same group. The last student in the group ends the story. Then another group begins a new story using a different method. It is important that each student continues the story of the students appearing before him and does not completely change the group's story. However, the story of each group should be different. Each story told should present people (refugees and / or migrants), events and places of these events. Before starting, the key words should be written on cards and placed in a box:

army, refugee, border, full-time job, detention for deportation, education, expulsion, fear, family reunification, chance, parents, passport, persecution, poverty, protection, return, seasonal worker, smuggler, work, tourist visa

Groups 1, 4 and 7:
We ask groups 1, 4 and 7 to come up with a story based on stories remembered from the forum stories presented earlier.
Groups 2 and 5:
We ask groups 2 and 5 to create a story using key words taken from the box. We ask students to briefly explain the meaning of the word spoken, if an explanation is needed. Each student uses a key word to invent his part of the story.
Groups 3 and 6:
We ask groups 3 and 6 to tell the story using photos

Exercise 3:
Debate
We prepare statements that should be written on cards and thrown into the box:

• Because I am a woman, I am not allowed to speak freely or express my opinions in my country.
• I am forced to leave and apply for refugee status so that I can express my opinion and be myself.
• I am not a racist, I accept migrants, but I think they should learn our language and our culture.
• I think we have enough unemployment in this country and that we should not allow more migrants.
• Everyone should have the right to travel wherever they want.
• In our society, you can only "exist" if your situation is regulated by law.
• All migrants without documents are illegal and should be sent back.

At the beginning everyone is standing in the middle of the room (neutral zone). Students draw one statement. Students then divide in their groups into: those who agree with the statement and those who disagree with it (groups move to opposite ends of the room). Students are only allowed to agree or disagree, there is no "if" or "but". They must react immediately and choose their position. Everyone interprets the statement in their own way. No explanation is given. Once each participant in the debate has already selected his group, a discussion should begin. A secretary is assigned to each group. During discussions, secretaries should write on the board key phrases used to support the argument.

Migration workshops at school with Ms Katarzyna Stala-Kondrakiewicz

Ice breaking activities