An Effective Labour Migration Policy through Gamification

The annual Academy on Labour Migration is one of the largest courses held at the ITCILO. Policy planners, government officials, workers’ and employers’ organizations, NGO staff, activists, representatives of migrant associations, development experts, academics and journalists met for 2 weeks to better understand labour migration challenges and opportunities in a changing political, economic and social context.

The ITCILO needed to find a way to help participants in the Labour Migration Academy practice and solidify their knowledge of labour migration policy development, while also gaining a better idea of the different actors involved in this process, their roles and how they interact. In addition, gamification was chosen specifically as a way to break the ice between participants, to enhance group participation during the lectures, and to promote networking. This was especially important due to the varied national and professional backgrounds and linguistic differences of the course participants.

The Labour Migration Game was designed to give participants in the course the opportunity to practice what they had learned in the course. Participants were divided into 6 teams: Government, Employers/Chamber of commerce/private sector, workers, civil society, government of country of origin, and local authorities. On the first day, each team received instructions about the game and their team. On the second day, they received a case study/country profile, profiles of the other teams, and a list of actions to be implemented over the course of the game. The goal of each team was to carry out the list of actions in the established timeframe and to be ready to participate in a plenary session during which the government team needed to adopt a labour migration policy.  The game was a great success, with learners saying that it greatly enhanced their learning. Feedback after the course included:

‘’Great experience. It was an excellent opportunity to improve my knowledge in the subject about labour migration’’

‘’It felt like we weren’t playing a game, every one of us was doing his role as if we’re really making a policy not just playing a game.’’