“On the Road with Migrants” Game

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IMG_3100World Refugee Day is June 20th, and I am honored to be able to share with you a powerful new game available free-of-charge to help raise awareness and understanding of the refugee and migrant experience.

Catherine Roignan, co-author of Cultural Detective Morocco, conducted the game at the recent SIETAR Europa conference in Valencia, and it was my favorite session of the conference. Many people in the room had tears running down their cheeks, and in the days following we found ourselves often talking about the experience we’d shared.

The game is called On the Road with Migrants, and it was created by Caritas France, the Association des Cités du Secours Catholique or ACSC. At the conference we had only a brief 15-20 minutes to play, but it was remarkable!

Groups of us gathered at tables with game boards showing different continents of the world, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Each player had a pawn representing an immigrant, who was identified by name and story. We threw dice, drew cards and moved our pawns around the board according to the instructions on the cards and the dice.

Kudos to Caritas France for their brilliant work on this! It is a terrific game!

The materials are available for download free-of-charge; you print out the cards and boards, and add dice and pawns—1 die and 4 pawns (one color for each of four characters) per continent/board. Our SIETAR Europa group helped with the English translation—this is collaboration with a purpose!

Learn more and download the game in French, English, Portuguese or German: En route avec les migrants. I am leading a team that is translating the game into Spanish.

Please, share with us your resources and ideas for commemorating World Refugee Day and for building empathy for the migrant experience in this world of ours.

34 thoughts on ““On the Road with Migrants” Game”

      • When I clicked on “Download the Game” it took me to the blog and the only link I found was to download the game in French. What am I missing?

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      • Ah, yes, sorry; I was in a meeting and not fully paying attention. I have sent a message to Catherine to ask if she has the link for the English version. I know it exists; it’s just getting it to us. Thank you for you passion for building intercultural competence and empathy for the migrant. Now more necessary than ever!

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    • Ok, vbcm6511, here’s what Catherine says: “There is an English version of this game, it is not online yet because some additions are currently made by Caritas France (more recent data, in particular). The completed English version will be put online first half of October. I’ll send you the link as soon as it exists.

      Please note the game will also be available in German and Italian in October.

      In case someone really needs the English version before October, please send me their mails and I would ask Caritas France to give them access to a temporary version (but data will not be up-to-date). “

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  2. HI 🙂
    I would love the english version of this game if possible, when it comes out in October. I’d like to use it in an educational setting. Thanks so much for your informative and excellent emails.
    Kind regards,
    Allison

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  3. This game looks amazing…I can read the French, but I really need the English version to use with secondary and tertiary students in New Zealand to raise their awareness of who are refugees and some of what they really face.

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  6. Hi Dianne! This looks like a wonderful game to play with my students. I teach a class on diversity to raise awareness on many issues and train future teachers to understand what it means to work with diverse populations. I have a group of 25 students and I was wondering how much time should be allocated to play the game? Thanks for your help. Severine

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  8. This looks excellent! Thank-you very much for sharing. I currently live in Germany and I think I will be able to put these to good use. One question Dianne, how big did you print out the continent boards?
    Thanks,
    Patricia

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    • Dear Patricia,
      The boards were printed by Caritas France in A3 (29,7 x 42cm). This size is sufficient to play, however some players recently said they would prefer to have larger boards than A3. But also think in terms of volume for you to carry around 😉
      If you think of using the game several times, it is recommended to plastify it, in particular the boards. Printing and cutting may take a while, better plan to do it ahead and possibly have a team to do it together.
      We think of creating a user group of this game to share experience and advice. I’ll keep this blog posted when we do so. So let’s stay in touch und viel Erfolg mit dem Spiel!

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      • Great Catherine! That’s helpful and I’d love to be a part of the group… I’d love to work in this field here in Germany, but haven’t yet found the opening… Hard to believe but the situation is so complex here – who should be doing what, how to build a homogenized program, accountability, and the clash of fear and cultural missteps (spitting, loitering, etc.) But such an exciting opportunity to put our skills to work! Let’s see what comes of it.

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  9. Please help? I’m printing out the ‘On the Road with Migrants Game. Can you tell me how many of the smileys and dollars sheets I need to print out? One for each board or more? I have no way of telling…
    Thanks, Patricia

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    • Hi Patricia, yes this info is unfortunately missing on the game. It may also depend whether you print out the full game (4 continents) or only part of it.
      If you print out the full game, probably 10 pages of each (10 sheets A4 of smileys, 10 sheets A4 of each amount of dollars) will do.
      In case a board facilitator gets short of money/change or smileys during the game, he/she may also borrow money from another board facilitator (on another continent). Keep the game going!

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  10. Thanks a lot! That helps, I was planning on doing 4 of each… I will double that. Yes I’m printing out the whole thing… I’m really hoping this will be a truly useful experience for a lot of people. Wish me luck!

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