Join the EU Table: INTERDISCIPLINARY TEACHING - Activities in Lahr

COURSES: SOCIAL & POLITICAL STUDIES –ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

Subject: Citizen and democracy 

Lesson Title: Immigration 

Grade: 11 

Length: 60 min 

Short Description of the Lesson Plan: 

The aim of this lesson is for the students to become aware and comprehend the immigration phenomenon in all its complexity. Greece, being one of the biggest “receiving “countries of both refugees and immigrants, is now facing an enormous challenge, thus making it compulsory for students to fully grasp the concept of fleeing one’s country and to realize that all of us are potential refugees or immigrants. They also need to be able to pinpoint the reasons that force people to immigrate and understand that we are dealing with a timeless phenomenon, therefore all prejudices and biases need to be removed, starting from the classroom and moving outwards into the local community and beyond. The lesson will take place in the computer lab.

The students will be divided into 4 groups of 4 members. Then they will do research into the precise meanings of the concepts: refugees and immigrants in https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/. After that, they will write down the differences found and will study 2 relevant articles given to them.

The 2 groups will be working on worksheets asking them to create a timeline of the history of immigration in Greece during the 20th century (https://www.timetoast.com/subscription/edit) and the other 2 groups will be working on a concept map dealing with the causes of the immigration phenomenon in our days (http://popplet.com/).

TARGETS/AIMS of the Lesson: 

• To be able to differentiate between the basic terms of refugees and immigrants when referring to the immigration issue. 
• To define the causes that force people to leave their homes 
• To fully grasp the diachronicity of the immigration phenomenon 
• To develop critical thinking and attitude with regard to this contemporary phenomenon 
• To learn how to surf the Internet, seek for specific information, evaluate it and use ICT to their benefit (for educational reasons) 
• To practise on cooperation through active roleplaying as team members (cooperative learning).

Educational techniques: Motivation, students’ participation through digital tools.

1st Phase: 

Motivation We show a BBC video (lasting 1.43’) in which journalist Gavin Lee presents the everyday life of 50 refugees living on Tilos, a small Greek island in the Dodecanese. The aim of the video is to stimulate the students’ interest in the current immigration phenomenon.

Then they are going to study the historic evolution of migration in Greece on https://www.iom.int/world-migration and they will talk about the reasons why this phenomenon has become so significant today.

2nd Phase: Research on the issue and relevant material

The students will visit https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ trying to pinpoint the differences between refugees and immigrants.

At this time the class will be divided into 4 groups of 4 members. The first 2 groups will look into the book of Contemporary World- Citizen and Democracy and will also work on a text called: Post war immigration waves in Greece (Kasimis C., Ventoura L. & Ziomas D., 2012). This is a summary of the official report of the European Committee regarding the social consequences of immigration and urbanism in Central and Eastern Europe.

After studying and recording the diachronicity of the issue, they will use the site: https://www.timetoast.com/subscription/edit so as to create a timeline of the history of immigration in Greece during the 20th century. The other 2 groups will look into the material found in the book of Contemporary World- Citizen and Democracy. Their reference will be the text on page 156 entitled:

“Why do people immigrate?” taken from http:www.redcross.org.uk/~/media/BritishRedCross/Documents/What%20we%20do/Teaching%20resourses/Teaching%20packages/Positive%20images/Greek/PDF/Theme%201.pdf, on 12/4/2018.

Each group will pinpoint and write down the causes of immigration and will be working on a conceptual map dealing with the causes of the immigration phenomenon in our days on the following site: http://popplet.com. Each map will be presented in class.

WORKSHEETS:

1st Worksheet (common for A and B group)

It is taken from the 11th Grade (2nd grade in Senior High School) book called: Contemporary World- Citizen and Democracy. The specific text is titled: Post war immigration waves in Greece (Kasimis C., Ventoura L. & Ziomas D., 2012). This is a summary of the official report of the European Committee regarding the social consequences of immigration and urbanism in Central and Eastern Europe.

Students will have to isolate those elements that help to elaborate the historic evolution of the phenomenon of immigration and then record them. Afterwards, they will visit https://www.timetoast.com/subscription/edit so as to use the elements they will have gathered in order to create a timeline of the history of immigration in Greece during the 20th century.

This work will be presented in class.

2nd Worksheet (common for C and D group)

Each group will study the material found in the book of 11th Grade (2nd grade in Senior High School) called: Contemporary World-Citizen and Democracy. Their reference will be the text on page 156 entitled:

“Why do people immigrate? ” taken from http:www.redcross.org.uk/~/media/BritishRedCross/Documents/What%20we%20do/Teaching%20resourses/Teaching%20packages/Positive%20images/Greek/PDF/Theme%201.pdf, on 12/4/2018.

Each group will pinpoint and write down the causes of immigration and will be working on a conceptual map dealing with the causes of the immigration phenomenon in our days on the following site: http://popplet.com/.

Each group will present their work in class.

WORKSHEET 1

Personal testimonies taken from contemporary immigrants in Greece

Sajwaa: “I left Iraq in 2006 along with my three kids because the situation in my country deteriorated. There was civil war in Iraq and due to both mine and my husband’s origin, we would be hunted down and threatened by several sides.”

Shakeeb: “I left India seeking for more work opportunities. I wanted to get to know different cuisines and I’ve always heard that in Europe there are more jobs, better working environment, better working conditions/ security and that Europeans accept people coming from other parts of the world more easily.”

Alain: “I left Congo because of political problems. More specifically, things are not going well as people are starving every day, youngsters are not attending school and there is no freedom of action or speech. Therefore, I thought that if I returned to this country, I’d either die or be hunted down.”

Ines: “My name’s Ines, I’m from Portugal and I came to the UK to work. In those days, things were not as bad as they are now but then again I couldn’t find any job for two years! I used to work part time for a while which became scarce too until no job could be found in the end.”

Priyanga: “I’ve only come here in quest of a better life. My parents and I left Sri Lanka when I was twelve. We had to abandon our country due to civil war which had just broken out and as a result, my parents’ lives were in danger. We came to the UK in 2000 but several of our asylum requests were turned down. Consequently, we had to keep applying for other states/ countries.”

WORKSHEET 2

Post war immigration waves in Greece Countries around the globe have communities that bear witness to the waves of outward migration that once characterized Greece.

As in the past, a complex set of forces are pushing and pulling migration to and from Greece.

Two important waves of mass emigration took place after the formation of the Modern Greek state in the early 1830s, one from the late 19th to the early 20th century, and another following World War II.

Following World War II, the countries of Southern Europe, Greece among them, were the main contributors to migration from agricultural economies in the Mediterranean to the stronger industrialized nations of Northern Europe or across the Atlantic.

More specifically, the migration wave towards the Western part of Europe was characterized as a temporary importation of cheap working labourers, designed as such by the receiving host countries and their employers. The main factors that led Greeks to this massive migratory movement were the prolonged unemployment, part time jobs and the unequal wealth distribution. The most devastated areas were poor agricultural communities, especially on small islands and mountainous regions where local economies collapsed and as a result, their citizens were uprooted in a quest of a better life. The migrants headed mainly (apart from the urban developing centres of Athens and Thessaloniki) to northwestern European countries as well as other continents.

After World War II and during the civil war in Greece that followed, over 160,000 Greeks came to Australia, mostly to Victoria. Initially, the majority found work in factories or farms as unskilled or semi-skilled labour – even educated migrants had to settle for a manual job. Community groups, churches, welfare agencies, newspapers and schools gradually developed, and eventually, the population of Melbourne constituted one of the largest Greek settlements in the world outside of Greece.

 The Greeks in Germany form a significant community with a population of roughly 348,475 people having Greek Citizenship according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, on December 31, 2016. Some 274,060 of these were born in Greece and 74,415 were born in Germany. About 443,000 people of Greek ethnic origin are estimated to live in Germany according to the 2016 Statistical Yearbook. The number varies significantly in other estimations, as the Federal Foreign Office of Germany gives an estimated population of 320,000 people, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece steps it up to 380,000.

The number of Greek immigrants rises up to 1,300,000 starting from 1946 till 1977. Out of the 668,000 who migrated within Europe, the highest percentage (83%) moved to Germany. The vast majority of the immigrants were young and at a productive age.

In the early 1970s, Greeks immigrated in relatively large numbers to the United States. Almost 600,000 arrived between 1971 and 1975. Almost all of these immigrants settled in Astoria, Queens, a part of New York City. So many Greeks came to Astoria that it became known as ‘Little Athens’ and was the largest Greek community outside of Greece.

However, this immigration wave after the 2nd World War had its positive effects on Greece’s economy: unemployment dropped and remittances rose. As a consequence, there was a reduction of balance of payments deficit. In the period of 1955 till 1982, Greek immigrants’ remittances represented 4-5% of yearly gross national income as well as the 1/3 of the undocumented resources in Greece.

Following the oil crisis of 1973 and the adoption of restrictive immigration policies by the European countries, immigration flows were severely reduced and return migration increased. Other factors contributing to these changes included integration difficulties in the receiving countries, the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, and the new economic prospects developed following the 1981 entry of the country into the European Economic Community (EEC). Between 1974 and 1985, almost half of the emigrants of the post-war period had returned to Greece.

However, the oil crises of 1973 and 1980 caused economic uncertainty and a sharp fall in the demand for labor, which in turn led northern states to introduce restrictive immigration policies. As these countries became less welcoming to their former invitees, return migration to Greece soon followe.