Students role-play being an immigrant in Europe

A group of 40 students from Malta, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic conducted role-plays divided into three groups, each group playing the role of immigrants, immigrant officers and observers respectively in a situation of immigrants trying to pass through a border. It was interesting to note that when they switched roles, the immigrant officers did not resist the immigrants trying to pass through.

The role-play formed part of an international week of activities held recently in Hamm, Germany, which showcased all the work done by the project partners of the school Comenius project "Migration in Europe" over the past three years. St Joseph School, Blata l-Bajda, is involved in the project, which is in its third and final year, and the week of activities was organised by the project's co-ordinator, Dieter Stichmann.

The school's Form 3 students who took part in the week - Rebecca Aquilina, Maria Christina Caruana, Martina Caruana, Kimberly Gregory, Ariane Micallef Borg, Annalisa Pizzuto and Simone Scicluna - acted very realistically and really stood out during the role-play activity.

In other activities organised during the week, each school presented an update on the project work conducted on migration. The students worked in groups to discuss migrants' rights classified by importance according to the UN Convention of Children's Rights, and worked on charts on the topic of migration. They also took part in various other activities organised by the Hamm mayor's deputy in charge of European issues.

During their visit to Germany, the students were accompanied by their teachers of German and Maltese, Michelle Vella Gobey and Sharon Grima, and both the teachers and students were hosted by German families.

This proved to be especially beneficial for the students who are all being taught German at school and so had the opportunity to practice the language in real life situations. By living with a German family they were also exposed to their culture, and could experience first-hand the region's seasonal traditions.

Among the week's other highlights was a trip to Cologne, where the students visited the famous gothic cathedral and climbed more than 500 steps to reach the top of the church tower. They also visited a chocolate museum and toured around the most important sites in the city centre.

The Maltese students' work on the project did not end with the international week.

All the school's third formers continued working on the migration project and the results were exhibited during at a fair held later in the year.

The project work will also be published in booklet form.