What does migration bring?

It should be suitable for adult or young adult intermediate level learners. Immigration can be a difficult and controversial topic to tackle and some students may have very strong opinions on this topic. The activity was based on themes from the OPENCities project: www.opencities.eu

Preparation

Download a copy of the audio file and/or script. If you are unable to play the audio file, you can read the script to your students.

Procedure

• Ask students what they feel the general attitudes of people in their city are towards immigration and people coming to work there from other countries.
• Ask them to think of some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a large immigrant population. List some of these on the board.
• Tell them that they will hear the opinions of someone living in the UK. Ask them to listen and decide if the person is positive or negative. (The person is very positive.)
• Ask the students to listen again and try to count the number of positive reasons the speaker gives. (The speaker gives four or five depending on how they feel the reasons are connected.)
• See if the students can work in pairs to list all the reasons why the speaker was positive about immigration. Ask if they were the same reasons they had thought of before listening.
• The students may want to listen again to clarify all the reasons. Ask them if they need to, then play the audio or read the script again.
• Ask the students to explain to you the speakers' reasons.
• Get the students to look back at their own list of advantages and disadvantages and see if they can think of arguments or solutions to the problems mentioned in the disadvantages list.