Helping Guide Immigrant Children with Board Game, Make a Move

University of Miami assistant professor Lien Tran has dedicated her time and expertise to providing a gaming solution to help the thousands of unaccompanied immigrant minors held in detention centers throughout the U.S. after crossing the border. Many of these children flee their countries mainly to escape violence or abuse; to find family members already living in the U.S.; or who were brought into the U.S. by human trafficking rings. The tough journey to reach the border is not the only hardship these unaccompanied and undocumented children face. Once immigration authorities apprehend them, they are held at detention centers where they have to make difficult decisions about their future, even at their young age. Make a Move, the game developed by Professor Tran, teaches children in a fun and entertaining way to understand the complex legal process and the options they have for being released. It has also been translated and named “Toma el Paso” in Spanish.

This month, Professor Tran held a bilingual game training session with 20 resident shelter staff who work with many of these children at His House Children’s Home in Miami Gardens, FL. Her aim was to introduce Make a Move and train these counselors how to become facilitators of the game and help children play Make a Move during their stay at His House. Thanks to funding from The New School’s New Challenge, 12 copies of the game have been donated to His House so that children could play as many times as they’d like. The counselors expect this game to be a useful tool for them to help these children make the right decisions for themselves.

 

Make a Move is a board game where players learn that there are three pathways to be released from detention and that some factors could affect their release approval in each. The three pathways are:

1. Reunification – When a child asks the U.S. government to live with an adult in the U.S. If the sponsor is not a parent of the child, he or she must get a notarized letter from one of the parents granting him or her custody of the child.

 

2. Federal foster care – When a child wants the U.S. government to find him or her a new home in the U.S. to live. The child must qualify for legal relief to live with a foster family or group.

 

3. Voluntary departure – When a child requests from a judge to return to his or her home country. Unlike deportation, a child who is granted voluntary departure doesn’t have to wait 10 or more years before applying to legally enter the U.S.

 

In the game, children are introduced to the role of the case manager and to the different documentation they will need for each of the three options, which will help them make a better decision about their future. It also helps make these children accountable and knowledgeable for what they need to obtain in order to be released.

UM commends Professor Tran for designing and executing such a creative solution to those who most need it. With Professor Tran’s board game, these already vulnerable children will benefit from not only hours of fun and play, freeing them from a stressful situation, but also in helping them become more empowered.