Lesson plan:

How tolerant are Europeans towards immigrant/foreign workers?

Overarching question: What kind of society is Europe, and what kind of society would you like it to be?

Thematic question: How tolerant are Europeans towards immigrants?

Lesson focus question: How tolerant are Europeans towards immigrant/foreign workers?

Lesson activities:

Start of the lesson:

Introduce ourselves and tell why we are here and what the project we are doing is for. (Developing lesson and testing them)

Exercise 1: Chess board

The pupils will have a black card and a white card in front of them. They will be presented with six different ideas of an immigrant/foreign worker. By raising the cards they have to say if they would like this immigrant/foreign worker as a neighbor or not. Positive feeling = raise white card, negative feeling = black card.

During this activity we will chose one or two pupils and ask them why they raised that color.

After this exercise we will show the pupils a map about how people from other countries opinions are.

Immigrant/foreign workers:

An American scientist who works for the university of Applied sciences. / A polish family who’s bread winner works in the strawberry fields picking strawberries all day. / A Muslim family from Morocco who’s bread winner and works as a teacher.
An African family who’s bread winner is a working mother working as a cleaning lady. / A Muslim family from Algeria who’s bread winner is a road construction worker. / An Italian worker who works only two days a week as a life guard at the local swimming pool.

Exercise 2: Opinion line

First, we will show the pupils the map and tell them that the lesson is going to focus on how people think about migrant workers according to the maps, and show them how the maps work. We will explain that we are going to do an exercise that will focus on the different opinions from different countries (relating attitudes) and then see whether these opinions are more economical or cultural (deepening understanding).

Second, the pupils will be presented a worksheet and they will form pairs of 2, and see 5 videos from pupils from 5 different countries with a different view towards immigrant workers and if they take their jobs away or not. On an opinion line they will mark if the students according to the statement are tolerant towards immigrant workers or not.

The videos we will show them are:

-  Anup/UK http://www.blip.tv/file/4827833 0:00-1:28

-  Naomi /NL http://blip.tv/file/4850454 0:00-0:40 (video doesn’t work just show statement in PowerPoint)

-  Gülay/TR http://blip.tv/file/4850592 0:00 - 0:40 (video doesn’t work just show statement in PowerPoint)

-  Katka/SK http://www.blip.tv/file/4599903 0:00 – 0:57

-  Nathalie/DE http://blip.tv/file/4605333 0:00 – 1:05

Negative attitude towards immigrants / ______/ Positive attitude towards immigrants

They will fill in the diagram above for each of the 5 different views.

Thirdly, the pupils will think about if the views/opinions have to do with economic reasons or cultural reasons. They will fill in the following diagram.

Lastly, we will ask the pupils debriefing questions why they have answered in this way and why do they feel/think in this way. We will ask debriefing questions in between the filling in of both diagrams.

Debriefing questions:

- What does a positive or negative attitude towards immigrants mean to you?

- What additional information would you need to understand the attitudes of the students more? What would you like to ask them?

- What did you learn about why people have certain view on immigrants?

Maps to go with the exercises:

Exercise 1:

Exercise 2:

Answer sheet:

Exercise 1:

Here there is no right or wrong answers it’s a pupil’s individual answer.

The pupils do have to be able to explain why they chose in this way.

Exercise 2:

Transcripts of the views/opinions:

Anup/UK http://www.blip.tv/file/4827833 0:00-1:28

I don’t really think that foreigners take jobs away from the natives; I think instead that they’re doing the jobs that natives don’t really want to do anymore. I think this has been apparent since the mid 20th century in the U.K. You look at people who work in restaurants, bars and most of them are immigrants. In the sixties, people who drove buses in London were also immigrants. It seems that a trend is continuing and I don’t think that many people are too worried about it. I think immigrants really add to the culture of the country in which they settle. I don’t think it’s in a negative kind of way. You look at London today and every sort of religion, culture and country is kind of represented. All the time there are different festivals and events going on that everyone takes part in. It just makes the place a little more vibrant, colourful, and with more immigrants in the country, bearing their culture, everyone learns from each other and ultimately it leads to a better understanding of everyone around the world.

Positive feeling towards immigrants, cultural + economical.

Naomi /NL http://blip.tv/file/4850454 0:00-0:40

I don’t think that immigrants steal jobs from the indigenous population. Migrants come here and they take part in the economy and workforce. It’s not a good idea to sit at home and receive benefits because then it’s someone else who is paying for this. I think it is good that immigrants work here. I do not feel that they steal jobs.

I do not think that our culture is undermined by immigrants, I see it more as a supplement to the culture in any given country. I think it is good when many cultures are together in a particular country because if you learn to accept other cultures and tolerate and learn other things then I do not think that the culture is going to suffer. I think that it is a supplement. In the Netherlands, for example, there are many different cultures and I find it just fine. In the Netherlands we know a lot of different cultures and I think it is good for the people themselves to learn and be able to handle different cultures.

Postive, both

Gülay/TR http://blip.tv/file/4850592 0:00 - 0:40

In my opinion, immigrants take away the jobs of other workers in that country. Considering our own country, the unemployment rate is already high. When there are also immigrants coming from other countries, the current unemployment rate increases. Showing Germany as an example, they demand workers from Turkey and other countries since they do not have workers to do certain jobs in Germany, and in this way, they do not have any trouble.
The cultural life of a country cannot be undermined by other immigrants, that is to say, everyone has a different culture, they can just adapt to the culture in Turkey. They should not change their own culture.

Negative, economical reasons.

Katka/SK http://www.blip.tv/file/4599903 0:00 – 0:57

In a way immigrants certainly take jobs and some other things away from natives in a country, but then again, even if a lot of people move into a country, a lot of people leave as well, so I think it balances out.
In my opinion, immigrants definitely don't undermine the cultural life of a country. They enhance it; people have an opportunity to learn facts about other countries. So I think they really don't undermine it.

Postive + negative, cultural reasons

Nathalie/DE http://blip.tv/file/4605333 0:00 – 1:05

I don't think, that foreigners in particular are taking work from Germans. I mean, they came to Germany and are a part of it, just like we are a part of it. They should also get a chance to work here. There are situations where they have jobs, which Germans are too lazy to do. That's why it's okay.

Even if a lot of foreigners live with us I don't think, that it is undermining our culture. Of course they have different views and we also have our own views. You just get to know both sides. That is something positive.

Positive, both

If they answer in a different way than they must be able to explain why!

Worksheet

Exercise 2:

Part A:

Negative attitude towards immigrants / ______/ Positive attitude towards immigrants


Part B:

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