On 14 November 2024, EMN Luxembourg used the educational tool Destination Europe for the fourth time as part of the “Introduction to Border Studies in Geography” course at the University of Luxembourg. This master’s course helps students understand and explain different aspects of border regions and critically reflect on various border concepts.
First, the European Migration Network, with all its activities and tasks, was introduced to the students. In a second step, members of the EMN Luxembourg team presented the educational learning tool Destination Europe. The class of 12 students was split up into two groups of 6, who then started to go through the tool, discussing migrant aspirations and generating engaged discussions on migration and integration challenges. After having taken up various roles of migration stakeholders at the EU, national and city level, students discussed their decisions and the impact on the lives of different migrant personas as well as on the public opinion in the EU.
In the final part of the 3-hour session, students were asked to identify and briefly discuss the concept of borders in the Destination Europe learning tool. After learning about different border types and permeabilities, students were shown several recent developments concerning borders in Europe, including the resurgence of internal borders controls within the Schengen-area and partnerships between EU and non-EU countries in migration management.
Destination Europe once again proved to be an innovative and effective way of introducing migration and integration decision-making processes at the university level. We want to thank all the students for their engaging discussions and their active participation.
