As part of their Civics and Citizenship investigation of ‘cultural capabilities’ our Year 5/6 students have been learning about migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. Students have been watching BTN stories, interviews on “You can’t ask that” and hearing personal stories about people and the reasons that they may want or need to move to Australia. Classroom discussions about refugees have taken place about positive and negative cultural stereotypes, the legalities of refugees, the misguided assumption that these people are often ‘boat people’ and our obligations as global citizens. To further contextualise this we invited Angie Doldan, the Settlement, Engagement and Support officer from South West Healthcare (SWHC) into the classroom to describe the human side of the often faceless masses of people we see in the media. Her role with SWHC involves meeting migrants and refugees and helping them gain access to the necessary services, schools, banking, employment, accommodation and support that they need. Angie explained that migrants choose to live in a country and that all refugees are asylum seekers but not all asylum seekers become refugees, depending on their circumstances. Students were invited to meet refugees with a friendly smile, ask them to become involved in community activities and not to take anything for granted as they may have had difficult or different experiences before arriving in Australia. Thanks for helping us become better global citizens Angie. Comments are closed.
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April 2024
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