The Rights Hero – Serious Games for Human Rights Education and Integration of Migrant and Refugee Children in Europe

Abstract

Following the rise of migrant inflows in Europe since 2015, more than 210,000 unaccompanied children have arrived in Europe. This article argues that serious games can in principle fill the gap of human rights education that these children face and ultimately help them develop, but important issues and challenges need to be considered. The article follows the design and development of “The Rights Hero”, a prototype serious game for migrant children to help them learn and practise their rights, encouraging them to take transformative action that will lead them to integration. The game focuses on the “Rights Hero”, whose gender and race are unidentifiable and who is trying to build up two superpowers, “Resilience” and “Empowerment”, through responding appropriately to various challenges. These challenges are all too familiar to migrant children. Designed by an interdisciplinary team of human rights and game design experts, and in collaboration with the ngo Network for Children’s Rights, work on the prototype raised important discussions regarding the use of games for human rights education, the need for children to know their rights, and their understanding of integration. The article reflects on the extent to which serious games can be developed as a useful informal educational tool for the human rights education of displaced children.

The potential of games for vulnerable groups like refugees: a scoping review

“…This is supposed to happen through the game’s characters, setting and story that encourages the emotional connection between the two players (locals and refugees) until they actually find themselves face to face at the end of the game ( 12 ) . On the other hand, “Rights Hero” promotes children to learn human rights, and its main objective is to help migrant and refugee children learn their rights and feel empowered to use them, with a view to responding to everyday life situations and indirectly, helping child integration into the communities in which they live ( 6 ) .…”

“…Chart 2 summarizes the characteristics of the 8 studies included in this review study with regard to authors, year, country, study design, objectives, participants, game title, game objective, ways of assessing the game and results. A total of 8 articles published between 2016 and 2022 were selected for the review (5,6,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) . The studies were developed in very different places: Greece; India; Spain; Denmark; United States (n = 2); Germany; and Netherlands.…”

“…Refugees’ needs are not determined solely by exposure to war and flight, there are life course determinants that also play a large role ( 3 ) . All people, including children, remain subject to levels of discrimination and social marginalization and at enormous risk of violations of their various human rights ( 6 ) .…”

“…The vast majority of refugees have been exposed to enormous traumas in their home country, such as human rights violations, murder of family members, imprisonment, torture and war ( 1 ) . In transit to their destination, they are often exposed to physical and sexual violence as well as mistreatment by traffickers and authorities ( 1 , 6 ) . But upon arrival at their destination, refugees are also exposed to post-migration stressors such as feelings of loneliness, rootlessness and social exclusion ( 1 , 7 ) .…”

“…It is argued that serious games can fill a gap in human rights education (6) , strengthening empathy skills, which is critical to the task of protecting vulnerable populations (9) . Due to the usefulness of digital games in promoting better socio-emotional behaviors, a lot of research has come up with interesting ways to use existing games to build socio-emotional skills (10)(11)(12)(13)(14) .…”