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Unit plan for ages 9-11 in Geography: Refugees - Who, Where and Why?

Teaching and training materials

Unit plan for ages 9-11 in Geography: Refugees - Who, Where and Why?
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24 March 2007
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UNHCR

 

A perilous journey ends in New Zealand citizenship. The Tampa Boys, rescued from the Norwegian freighter off the Australian coast in 2001, at the ceremony in Manukau, NZ. Photo courtesty of and
© Brett Phibbs/The New Zealand Herald

UNIT OBJECTIVES

Knowledge

  • To gain a general understanding of refugee issues
  • To understand clearly;
    • a) the concepts of migration, emigration, immigration
    • b) the definition of a refugee
    • c) the concept of asylum
  • To see that the refugee crisis is a world wide one
  • To become more familiar with the regions which are often in the news, areas which generate refugees and which give asylum

 

Refugees at a reception centre in Hungary face mounting challenges in employment, housing, health care and education.
© UNHCR/A.Hollmann

Values

  • To encourage in the students empathy for children similar to themselves, who have lost their homes and homelands
  • To foster open-mindedness and respect for others
  • To increase global awareness in the students, expanding the boundaries of their experience

Skills

  • To strengthen discussion and written expression skills
  • To improve and strengthen map reading skills
  • To have some fun!


 

LESSON 1: Make a Little Difference

CONTENT TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES
The experience of refugee children throughout the world.

Introduction

Brief open-ended question by the teacher: "What do you think a refugee is?" Consider student answers, then lead in to the video To be a Refugee.

Video

To be a Refugee lasts 15 minutes. Be prepared to stop the video from time to time to explain or ask questions.

Activity Sheet

Students begin answering questions from the activity sheet. The teacher should ask the students to read out their answers (especially with a younger class) and stimulate discussion.
RESOURCES

 

Most of the refugees at Al Tanf fled their homes in Iraq because of harassment, death threats, arrests or killings. Despite the hardship, they feel safer in no man's land.
© Courtesy of Paris Match/Thierry Esch, October 2006

Video: To be a Refugee (Geneva, UNHCR, 1999), available free of charge, from the UNHCR Public Affairs Unit, Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt, Suisse.

Activity Sheet: To be a Refugee

Teachers' Guide: To Be a Refugee: Video and Teachers' Guide (1999)


 

LESSON 2: Why Do People Leave Their Home Countries?

CONTENT TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES

Reasons for migration

1. Push factors:

  • Unemployment
  • Economic hardship
  • Disasters (drought, famine)
  • Ecological degradation
  • Persecution
  • War

2. Pull factors:

  • Employment
  • Better economic opportunities (desire for a better life)
  • Safety

Definition

Refugees are people who flee their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. A refugee either cannot return home, or is afraid to do so.

Questioning with blackboard summary

Based on the discussion and the video from the previous lesson, the teacher and students build a blackboard summary covering CONTENT topics.
RESOURCES

 

Living conditions in Ruweished camp are harsh, with hot desert storms in the summer and freezing nights in the winter.
© UNHCR/A.van Genderen Stort, July 2004

Suggested readings for the teacher

Jill Rutter, Refugees: We Left Because We Had To (London, Refugee Council, 1996), p. 10-11.

UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees 1995:
In Search of Solutions (Oxford, OUP, 1995), p. 19-40, p. 82-89.


 

LESSON 3: Where Do Refugees Come From? Where Do They Go?

CONTENT TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES

Definition of a refugee and various associated terms such as persecution, civil war and asylum.

Identification of countries of origin of refugees and of countries which have given them asylum.

Link to previous lesson

Quick recall questions: Why do people leave their home countries?

Development

Students complete Activity Sheet: Refugees
- Who, Where and Why? which contains questions and definitions to aid students in learning about refugees.

Game

Students learn the placement of the countries of origin of the refugees and the countries of asylum on a world map through playing "geographical bingo". (See lesson plans for construction of the game).
RESOURCES

 

Because life in the no-man's land was so hard and dangerous, the camp's population of Palestinians and Iranian Kurds was transferred to Ruweished. In 2006, another group of Iranian Kurds got stranded between the borders.
© UNHCR/A.van Genderen Stort, July 2004

Activity Sheet: Refugees - Who, Where and Why?

Suggested reading for teachers

UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees 1995:
In Search of Solutions (Oxford, OUP, 1995), p. 12-13

Helping Refugees: An Introduction to UNHCR (Geneva, UNHCR, 1996), available free of charge, from the UNHCR Public Affairs Unit, Case Postale 2500 CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt, Suisse.

Refugees by numbers.


 

LESSON 4: Flight and Asylum

CONTENT TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING STRATEGIES

A more detailed study of selected regions of the world which have recently generated refugees and given asylum

  • Horn of Africa
  • Caucasus
  • Former Yugoslavia
  • Afghanistan/Iran/ Pakistan
  • West Africa
  • Great Lakes Region of Africa

Link to previous lesson

Quick recall questions

Development

Use of more detailed maps of selected regions of the world.

Use of pie charts to demonstrate the proportion of refugees from each country in the selected region.

Related publications

More publications