Step 1: Refugee Statistics (5 min.)

Introduce the lesson and discussion by asking students for their best guesses at the answers to these questions:

1. What does the term “refugee” mean?
2. How many refugees are there in the world today?
3. Where are they fleeing from?
4. Which countries are most of them going to?

(Do this step quickly enough that students can’t look up answers on phones, tablets or laptops)

After accepting several guesses, show this web page of statistics from the United Nations:

https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

Invite students to notice which of their guesses were accurate. Let them share anything that surprised them. Give them some time to consider what assumptions may have been embedded in their guesses and write them down (in journals or daily documents if you have them). Give students a few minutes to share with partners.

[Optional] Take a few minutes to discuss the source of the statistics. What is UNHCR? Why would statistics from that organization tend to be reliable or unreliable?

[Optional] Tell students that there are approximately 7.7 billion people in the world and let them figure out what percentage of the world’s population are refugees.

Step 2: Define Terms (5 min.)

Ask students to define the terms “refugee” and “asylum.”

[Optional] If you have in-class Internet access, use this as an opportunity for students to practice research skills by asking them to search for definitions of the terms.

Guide them to think about why it would be necessary to have a precise legal definition.

Then share the official United Nations definition from the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/3b66c2aa10), which states that a refugee is a person who,

owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Review the definition and ensure that everyone understands it. Explain that a refugee who is granted asylum is given legal status to live in a nation that isn’t their nation of origin.

Step 3: Introduce the Film (1 min.)

Explain to students that they are going to humanize the statistics and legal definitions and get a sense of what a refugee experiences by seeing clips from a documentary film called Midnight Traveler. The film follows one family’s journey from Afghanistan to asylum in the European Union. Invite students to notice the mundane things they probably take for granted that are especially difficult for the refugees.

Give students a focus for viewing. This can be connected to specific topics the students have been studying and/or their task after viewing, which will be to write a five- to 10-point bill of rights for refugee children.

You could also pose these questions:

• Once the family is out of Afghanistan (and therefore out of immediate danger), why is their journey to safety so difficult?
• What types of obstacles do you notice?
• Who is putting up the obstacles and why?

Step 4: View the Film (30 min.)

Show all the film clips in order, stopping only for occasional check-ins to make sure students understand what they are seeing. The experience is intentionally choppy to give a feel for a journey that isn’t smooth, predictable or linear.

After the final clip you can let students know that after a three-year, 3,500-mile journey, the family’s asylum claim is ruled legitimate and they are granted entry into the European Union.

Discuss how the family in the film had no other choice but to smuggle themselves illegally across the European Union border, noting that it was the only way to get their case heard. Check for understanding and ask students to consider how breaking the law was the only way for them to gain legal status and protection. Ask students how they feel about this, what seems complicated about this process and what might factor into this process not being more straightforward.

Allow students a couple of minutes to share initial reactions and answer the questions you posed as a prompt: Once the family is out of Afghanistan (and therefore out of immediate danger), why is their journey to safety so difficult? Who is putting up the obstacles and why?

If you are dividing the lesson into two class periods, this would be the natural stopping point for the first class.

Extension Question/Cross-Disciplinary Connection

Ask students if they can think of another time in history/another historical figure who broke the law for positive reasons?

Ask students if they can think back to a law (either nationally or globally) that made some people safe and others less safe.

Step 5: Create a Bill of Rights (25 min.)

Divide students into small groups. Ask them to think about the experiences of Nargis and Zahra. Each group should brainstorm a list of rights that they think the world should grant to refugee children (e.g., nations should be required to provide adequate food to any child who shows up inside their borders, irrespective of legal status; children have a right to stay with their parents).

After groups have had time to develop their declarations, create a class document that assembles all the points. Conduct weighted voting, asking students to evaluate the importance of each point. They can rate each right on a scale of zero (not important) to five (essential). Tally the votes and have everyone note the top 10. Create a list of the top 10 that will be accessible to everyone.

Step 6: Current Policies (10 min.)

Guide a discussion about how well nations are meeting the needs identified by students in their bill of rights. The focus of the discussion can be determined by your curriculum. For example, a current events class might want to look at current U.S. policies governing children crossing the border illegally. A global studies class might want to look at the European Union’s attempts to deal with millions of immigrants from places like Syria and Afghanistan and how nations bordering conflict regions are saddled with the greatest burdens. Students might also want to address the challenges of accepting refugees from cultures that are very different from that of the adopted nation.

Step 7: Assessment Assignment

To synthesize what they’ve learned, assign students to write compare/contrast essays, comparing the class bill of rights with one of the following:

• United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
• Current U.S. policy on refugees seeking asylum
• [For students who were refugees themselves] Your (or your family’s) personal experience of being a refugee