Bolivia?... Wachilanga!: Workshops on migration and refuge with teenage students in Jujuy (Argentina)

ROVETTA, ANA IRENE; YUFRA, LAURA CRISTINA

Conferencia; Conference The Role of Universities in Addressing Societal Challenges and Fostering Democracy; 2021

University of Akureyri Research Centre

Jujuy is a province in the north of Argentina that sharesits northern border with Bolivia. It is a space populated by people who,despite having experienced past and present cross-border migration, often tendto avoid speaking out about it. As members of the National University of Jujuy andthe Argentine Scientific and Technical Research Council, in 2018 we carried outa series of workshops on the topics of migration and refuge in three secondary schoolsin the capital of Jujuy. Our aims were encouraging teenagers to address the sensitiveissues collectively and, also, bringing our academic work closer to the young membersof the community where we live and work. We designed a series of ludic-educationalactivities in which we asked them to tell us about their ancestors and peoplefrom previous generations who had had a significant impac on their lives; andone in which, using cardboard-made passports, we encouraged them to imagine nations,(forced and voluntary) displacements among them, and possible plans to promote,organize or contain the migration flows. Among the results of our intervention,we discovered: (1) A great reluctance to recognize family (or any other kind of)ties with people from Bolivia, and (2) a larger inclination on the part of teenagegirls to generate collaborative and inclusive strategies for the imagined nations.