Refugee Week
Refugee Week
Stories, Rights, and Responsibility
Lesson duration is: 45 minIntroduction
Items in this lesson
Refugee Week
Stories, Rights, and Responsibility
Welcome to this lesson for Refugee Week.
There are lots of animations here with gif - too often refugees are presented as a statistic or as a distant, homogoneous 'other'.
There is a deliberate attempt here to make sure the human side is very visible.
Do not be intimidated by the gifs if you want to change images or add your own slides. They work in the same way as normal images.
If you go to 'replace image' all the border and colour settings will remain.
Hope you and your learners enjoy this lesson!
What words come to mind when you hear the word refugee?
A word cloud starter activity.
What we will learn today
Understand what a refugee is and why people flee their homes
Explore how countries and communities respond
Investigate common misconceptions
Learing Objectives page.
What is a refugee?
A refugee is someone forced to leave their country to escape danger.
Danger may include war, violence, or persecution.
Refugees cannot safely return home.
An informative slide.
Which statement best describes a refugee?
Someone travelling for a holiday
Someone moving for a new job
Someone forced to leave their country because it is unsafe
Someone studying abroad
Quiz question reinforcing established facts.
Correct answer: C
Refugees flee because their life, safety, or freedom is threatened.
This definition is recognised in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Additional context - felt these are needed due to all the misinformation and emotive manipulation in the media and by politicians.
Why do people become refugees?
War and armed conflict
Persecution (religion, politics, identity)
Violence or human rights abuses
An explanation slide.
What do you think is the hardest part of being a refugee?
Leaving family behind
Losing your home
Travelling long distances
Starting a new life in another country
A poll - thought about adding a 'something else' option but decided not to. Very easy to add if you wish and feel it might add to classroom discussion!
There isn't one answer...
All options can be difficult.
Refugees may experience:
Loss of home and community
Dangerous journeys
Language and cultural challenges
Uncertainty about the future
More explanation here, could be used to futher discussion.
A TED talk video that is still relevant, explaining key facts. Quiz questions follow based on this video.
What defines a refugee according to the UN?
Travelling for leisure or adventure
Seeks better economic opportunities
Fled due to natural disasters
Unable to return due to persecution
Multiple choice
What is the principle of non-refoulement?
Requiring refugees to work immediately
Allowing refugees to travel freely
Mandating education for all refugees
Preventing return to life-threatening countries
Multiple choice
What are refugees often dependent on?
Humanitarian aid for survival
Government jobs and employment
Private sponsorship from wealthy individuals
Support from their home country
Multiple choice
If you had to leave your home country suddenly..... 1. What would you take? Where would you go and why? How would you feel?
If you had to leave your home country suddenly.....
1. What would you take? 2.Where would you go and why?
3.How would you feel?
An open question to engage learners and see thinngs from others' perspectives.
If you had to leave your home country suddenly..... 1. What would you take? Where would you go and why? How would you feel?
True or false?
TRUE
FALSE
Refugees get free houses as soon as they arrive in the UK
Refugees can choose any country they want to live in
Most refugees come to the UK
Refugees often cannot work straight away while their asylum claim is being processed
Many migrants contribute to the economy through work and taxes
Most refugees stay in countries close to where they fled from
A drag and drop exercise. Very easy to alter this with different facts and untruths.
If you had to leave your home country suddenly..... 1. What would you take? Where would you go and why? How would you feel?
Why do you think there is so much misinformation about refugees, asylum seekers and migrants?
This is an irrestible question to ask, and an important way of getting learners to develop critical thinking skills.
If you had to leave your home country suddenly..... 1. What would you take? Where would you go and why? How would you feel?
What can you do to check if information about refugees, aslyum seekers and migrants is correct?
This open question develops the themes of the last slide.
Check claims before believing them
Fact-checking websites
Reliable journalism
Official statistics
Some advice on these informative slides.
Hidden within the logos are two hyperlinks to take you to the websites.
Sort these countries on highest to lowest number of refugees
A sorting question that should provide some really interesting answers!
Turkey
→ One of the largest refugee-hosting countries (millions, mainly from Syria)
Colombia
→ Hosts large numbers of displaced people from neighbouring Venezuela
Germany
→ One of the largest refugee-hosting countries in Europe
Pakistan
→ Hosts millions of refugees, mainly from Afghanistan
Uganda
→ Major host country in Africa with progressive refugee policies
United Kingdom
→ Hosts far fewer refugees compared to many other countries
Again, felt an informative slide was required to add context.
You may have noticed Iran is not on this list.
👉 In fact, Iran has been one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world, hosting around 3–3.8 million refugees in recent years
So why isn’t it here?
Global situations change (e.g. conflict, politics)
Data updates over time
Countries can shift in ranking
Additional facts in light of recent world events.
This can become a way of reinforcing the idea that the global refugee situation is dynamic.
Want to know more?
Global refugee crises
International law and human rights
Migration vs refugees
Refugee success stories
This slide is designed to spark some extension work. If you wanted to you could make this into group work either in the lesson or set it as a follow up assignment.
If you had to leave your home country suddenly..... 1. What would you take? Where would you go and why? How would you feel?
What did you learn today about refugees that you didn't know before?
This is the exit ticket.
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Thank you for using this lesson!