Tesseltje De Lange en Karen Geertsema op een bankje in het Grotiusgebouw
Tesseltje De Lange en Karen Geertsema op een bankje in het Grotiusgebouw

The Migration Game: Making European migration law come alive in casuistry

TLC voucher project
Duration
2021
Project member(s)
Dr K.E. Geertsema (Karen) Prof. T. de Lange (Tesseltje)
Project type
Education
Organisation
Radboud Teaching and Learning Centre, Centre for Migration Law

Motivation

Migration law is complex on a legal, societal and political level. Students find it hard to differentiate between these different layers and shift between levels. Can a simulation help students better understand migration law?

Legal education becomes more interesting and of higher quality when the material is more lively. This can be accomplished through the use of educational simulation games. The Migration Game is one of those education simulations. It gives students the opportunity to pretend to be one of the many legal roles that are relevant in migration law. This way future lawyers are challenged to think critically and creatively within their role.

Desired solution

The goal of this project is to stimulate students to critically think about migration law. Not like a static given amount of rules, but as a living set of instruments to shape society with. What we hope is that through The Migration Game students learn to shift between different layers of law, with which they can help think about societal issues in a more effective way.

Werksessie Tesseltje en Karen

Action plan

The aim is that The Migration Game can be incorporated in the course European & Comparative Refugee Law in academic year 2021/2022 and during the Summer school in 2022. To realise this, first substantive development of the game scenario has to be created with the learning objectives for students in mind. This can then be transformed into a simulation. 

Students will test The Migration Game, together with lecturers from other disciplines and elsewhere in Europe. After improvements are made, there is another check to make sure the game is in line with the learning objectives and theory. If all is well, after that the game can be used in education.

Results

With the development of The Migration Edu-Game, Tesseltje and Karen have realised an innovative form of education that combines game and knowledge development. The simulation aligns with traditional legal education methods, but adds an experiential component that actively engages students in complex issues in migration law. Three scenarios were developed using the TLC voucher: 

  • Family reform and labour migration
  • Forms of continued residence and labour migration
  • Return and departure of foreign nationals
Werksessie Tesseltje en Karen

During the game, students are given roles and work together in groups. Instructions are played on the screen and events take place that influence the course of the game. After the simulation, the lecturer holds a classroom evaluation, linking elements from the scenario to that week's learning objectives.  

Each game round is evaluated with a questionnaire, supervised by Marieke de Wijse-van Heeswijk, who is doing her PhD at Radboud University on research into the effectiveness of game simulations. Her initial analysis of the game is positive. This is also evident from student reactions: 

Great way to teach students the practical aspects of migration law, that there are other considerations than legal ones. (…)  Awareness of the dynamic relation between law and policy (…) Realities on solving issues quickly and in teams.

It was really thought provoking and interesting to be part of such a simulation. It gave me a perspective on reality and how things can be complicated in real.

Want to know more?

Read the entire publication by Karen Geertsema, Marieke de Wijse-van Heeswijk, Tobias Alf and Tesseltje de Lange.

The EU migration law simulation - Geertsema et al., 2025
pdf 567.25 KB

Funding

This project is funded by a TLC voucher from the Radboud Teaching and Learning Centre. This voucher programme aims to set up projects in the field of educational innovation, lecturer development and educational research.

Thanks to the voucher, the researchers were able to obtain a Comenius Grant to keep developing the game.

The TLC voucher enabled the Karen and Tesseltje to successfully apply for a Teaching Fellowship with the NRO Comenius programme in 2022 to further develop the game. 

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Contact information

Would you like to know more? Do not hesitate to contact the applicant.

Contact

See also…

Vouchers of the Radboud Teaching and Learning Centre

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