As Election Day in the USA is approaching, what does it matter to the rest of the world who becomes the next American president? Here’s a look at how global issues will be affected: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/10/22/926692628/trump-and-biden-on-global-issues-from-reproductive-rights-to-refugees
Category: Refugees
Operation Day’s Work: South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda
This year’s OD Project support young refugees from South Sudan. Visit this site: https://www.od.no/pushgrensene to learn more about the project. What do you learn about the country South Sudan and the challenges people are faced with there? Why have many people fled to the neighbour country, Uganda? What are some of the problems they are faced with there? What is the OD Project going to help with?
Write a blog post where you argue why Norwegian students should take part in this year’s OD Project.
Ingunn
Migration and Refugees
- Take a look at what the refugee situation is like in the world today: https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html?fbclid=IwAR2v8SbIQQMRbPf66tUb8O60mcZm2ERhqGm9A5aqu7bguZY7at0Tcl263X4
2. Work in pairs. One person reads up on migration, the other on refugees. Take turns telling each other what you found out:
https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/migration/index.html
https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/refugees/
You should also check out The International Organization on Migration:: https://www.iom.int/
3. Read the two texts below:
Discuss what they tell you about the issues of migration and refugees. What thoughts do these texts provoke in you?
Warshan Shire has said it is important to her to “tell the stories of those people, especially refugees and immigrants, that otherwise wouldn’t be told, or told inaccurately.” What do you think she means by this? Does she succeed in doing so with her poem? Give examples from the text. Can you find similar examples from the other text you read?
4. Immigrant Posters: Discuss these posters and the message they send:
5. The situation in Moria
Read this article to find out more about the situation in Moria after the fire: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/12/greeces-moria-camp-fire-whats-next
Watch this video:
- Why are women and girls especially at risk?
- What do you think Europe should do about the situation in this and other refugee camps? Discuss in your groups.
6. The artist Banksy has donated a lot of art and even a ship to the cause of helping refugees in the Mediterranean Sea.
What do you think about this kind of activism, combining art, creation of awareness and collecting money for a cause?
The Refugee Crisis
Today’s refugees
According to UNHCR, there are 70,8 million refugees in the world today. The biggest refugee camp is in Bangladesh and houses the approximately 630,000 Rohingyas who are considered one of the most persecuted people. A people with no future, little hope and a life in limbo.
In the “Ultimate Safari”, Nadine Gordimer tells a story of a group of people that has to flee because of war and conflict.
We have also heard about the people of West Sahara and their sufferings, being forced from their homes to live in refugee camps since the invasion of West Sahara by Morocco in 1975.
Write a blogpost in which you summarize the impressions you are left with after working with both fact and fiction. What do you think the UN can do to solve/improve the situation for the refugees/the refugee challenge? What can the world do?
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5f9KsGfv8&feature=emb_title
“The Ultimate Safari” by Nadine Gordimer
https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/refugees/index.html
https://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2019/trapped-in-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp/
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