Moving to Another Country

I. Social Progress Index Survey

Click here to take the survey

Questions:

• Have you ever lived outside your country of origin?
• Do you want to stay in France in the future?
• What is your biggest motivation for moving?

II. Class Discussion

Walls protect.
Walls divide.

Which phrase do you agree with more? Why?

III. Group Activities: Immigration in America

Activity A: Facts about the border

As you read the article, answer the following questions together:

• Is there already a sort of border wall?
• How much money will Trump’s wall cost?
• Why are there different walls in different areas?
• How many border patrol agents guard the border?

Activity B: The Psychology of Walls

Read the following text:

While walls and fences are certainly physical things — imposing ones at that — a good deal of their power comes from elsewhere. They are also things of the mind. And it is not a concept confined by American borders. The Germans, who seem to have a name for everything, use the phrase Mauer im Kopf (“wall in the head”) to refer to the phenomenon. The Berlin Wall may have been torn down long ago, but many people in Germany still feel divided; the wall is intact in their minds. Walls can be spectacular as architectural structures, but they can be even more fascinating as entities that inhabit our thinking and shape cultures.

Walls are built not for security, but for a sense of security. A wall satisfies our mental needs. Walls protect people not from barbarians, but from anxieties and fears, which can often be more terrible than the worst vandals. In this way, they are built not for those who live outside them, threatening as they may be, but for those who live inside. In a certain sense, then, what is built is not a wall, but a state of mind.

adapted from Costica Bradatan, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/scaling-the-wall-in-the-head/

• Where do we see dividing walls in the world?
• According to Bradatan, why do we build border walls?
• What is the real function of a border wall?
• Why are people afraid of immigrants?
• Are there border walls in France or Europe?
• Are there physical or symbolic entities that act like border walls in France or Europe?

Activity C: Immigration and the American Economy

Pre-vocabulary: Match the word with the correct sentence.

• forefront – the most important position
• it’s no wonder – it is not surprising
• focal point – the focus, the center
• skyrocket – to increase very quickly
• risk – to expose to danger, harm, or loss

1. He __________ his life to save the family from the fire.
2. Elliot has been sick, so __________ that he is absent today.
3. Tax policies have become the __________ of the local elections this year.
4. The author’s experiences in China are the __________ of her book.
5. Prices of train tickets __________ during the summer when more people want to travel.

• How many immigrants live in the U.S.?
• Which American cities have high percentages of immigrant populations?
• Why did the IMF encourage the US, the UK, and Japan to accept more immigrants?
• How much economic growth in the US has been directly attributed to immigration since 2011?
• What are immigrants more likely to do than U.S. natives?
• How many American businesses have been started by immigrants?