Are we Capable?

Empathy

Objectives

- To encourage empathy and communication with immigrants and/ or refugees

- To analyse the difficulties faced by immigrants and / or refugees

- To analyse integration needs

- To understand that refugees have the same skills as we do. They only need to learn the language and customs of the reception countries to fully develop

 

Expected Outcomes

At the end of the session participants will be able to:

- Put themselves in the place of others and feel empathy

- Understand the difficulties faced by immigrants / refugees

- Appreciate difficulties faced by immigrants due to language obstacles

 

Target group

Youth and Adults (over 15 years old)

Number of participants: 16 - 30 people

 

The degree of expertise needed - 2

The amount of work to prepare and implement the scenario - 1

The relative overall cost predicted - 1

 

Easy to do, the final argumentation may be the most difficult phase. The facilitator must be prepared for it.

 

Duration

45 min

Space

Two rooms  to separate participants in 2 groups (group A and group B)

Each room should have a table and chairs around for the participants

Introduction of the session, session instructions and final debate will take place in one of these rooms, which should be able to accommodate both groups together.

 

Resources

Copy of Annex 1; classroom supplies

Preparation

Facilitator must prepare the two rooms for team work

 

Conduction

Introduction

Facilitator introduces themselves and ask participants to introduce themselves.  After that he/she explains to participants that they are going to carry out an activity on immigration. Participants will be split into two groups to see which one wins. Initially, the facilitator will ask them some questions to check their knowledge on the subject. (5 min)

 

Activities

Initial discussion (15 min)

Facilitator starts the session by asking participants about immigrants, their ability to work, their studies, etc, in order to collect general opinions.

Question you can use in the discussion:

-Do you personally know any immigrants or refugees? What do they work in?

-What jobs do you think immigrants and refugees can do?

-What training do you think immigrants or refugees who come to our country have?

-Do you think refugees or immigrants could do the same things as we do?

-What kind of jobs are immigrants and refugees trained for?

 

The aim is to check what participants think about immigrants and refugees. The debate starts here. While one facilitator asks the questions, the other (or the voluteer from the group) should take note of the comments in order to dismantle possible prejudices in the conclussions phase.

 

Group activity (20 min)

Participants are divided into group A and group B. Facilitator tells them that both teams will perform the same test. The best team will be the winner.

Participants are separated in different rooms and given a document with instructions. (Annex 1)

Group A and B will have the same instructions, but Group A's will be in their own language and the questions will refer to their country. Group B will have some words in a foreign and difficult language, and some questions about another country.

 

IMPORTANT: Group A is not allowed to communicate with Group B, and viceversa.  They should not be aware of the differences in the instructions until conclusion time.

So, while Group A will work easily, Group B will have trouble to complete the test. Once the time is over, participants will meet again in the common room, remembering they must not speak to each other.

 

Pooling answers (10 min)

Each team must appoint a spokesperson to show their group's results. The winner is surely group A. Then, each group should explain how they have done the test and answer the facilitators' questions:

-Was the activity easy?

-Did you understand what you had to do?

-How did you feel?

-Do you understand why the other team got better/worse results?

-Do you think the other group has the same abilities as your group?

-Did the other group have the same possibilities?

-What was the most difficult part?

 

Group A starts.

 

Debriefing

Conclusions (15 min)

Once each group has explained the details of their tests, it is time for the final reflection.

Facilitators must explain the difficulties faced by immigrants and refugees in getting jobs. They should argue that immigrants have the same capacities as everyone else, but that they need to acquire knowledge (language, culture) to improve their possibilities. We must be tolerant and supportive with them and help them to overcome these obstacles.

Facilitators can use the notes collected at the beginning to dismantle prejudices or stereotypes by showing the problems faced by group 2.

Support tool: Annex 2.

 

Support tools

 

Inspiration

IMigration (Erasmus +) project on positive migration, developed in Spain.

Ideas for action

If there are many participants, subgroups can be created (Group A1, A2, A3 and group B1, B2, B3). Each group must do different tests. Groups with the same letter can  work in the same room.

 

ANNEXES

Annex 1: Tests by groups

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Annex 2: Conclusions support

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Created by Ecos do Sur

ITE