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Examining Immigration Advocacy via Games

Posted by Hsing Wei on 07-10-07

Groups like Breakthrough, a New York-based human rights organization, are making games that promote their advocacy agenda. 

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An LA Times article points to Breakthrough’s video game ICED (I can end deportation) as an example of one of the growing number of groups using the medium to influence public opinion on immigration laws.  ICED, targeting high school and college students, puts players in the shoes of an illegal immigrant and slants towards highlighting the arbitrary nature of immigration laws. 


Not everyone is sold on the effectiveness of video games as an advocacy tool in swaying public opinion.  Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said “This is not an issue where people are on the fence,” he said. “Everybody is familiar enough with the issue that they have staked out a position already.”


Those developing the games see the relevance especially for younger ages groups for which online media has become a very central part of their lives.  Supporters also emphasize the ability to simulate new perspectives. 


Worthy of notice is that games are being produced by both sides - both perspectives.  Similar to ICED’s agenda, Squeezed, a game from students at the University of Denver (funded with grant support from mtvU and Cisco Systems), is designed to raise empathy for migrant laborers.  On the other side of the spectrum, Border Patrol, on the site of a white supremacist organization, is overtly anti-immigrant.  The game’s objective is to “keep them out … at any cost.”

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