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Short abstract:

workshop/game

Abstract:

"My documents, check them out" is a collaborative, role-playing game simulating the bureaucratic mechanisms shaping migration control. Its main goal is to interest players in the problematization and re-design of the semantic categories and values used in databases for migration management. During the game, players impersonate a fictional character, and they are told that a “document” is needed to legally remain in Italy. To obtain the document, players must fill in and submit an application form containing information about their characters and their migration journey. At the beginning of their turn, players pick up a card from the deck. “Wait” and “Accelerated procedure” cards mimic the temporal dynamics shaping migration management. “Design cards” allow players to choose and introduce a new category, to capture what they consider salient elements of their characters’ migration trajectory. Players are also invited to share stories in order to receive comments and suggestions. Lastly, “Agency cards” provide the possibility to add new elements to the characters’ stories and identities. Applications are then uploaded into a software which takes a decision by producing a negative, long-term positive or short-term positive outcome. The game constitutes a tool for reflection which, according to the differently situated gazes of the players, discloses their competences, assumptions and biases about the dynamics of migration management. My documents, check them out was developed in the context of the Processing Citizenship ERC project (#714463) and was co-designed with asylum seekers, lawyers, students, civil servants.