Migration Management Scrutinized Through Participatory Theater
Switzerland has a high foreign population but a restrictive admission policy for non-European nationals, leading to a multi-speed system where some have more opportunities than others. During the participatory theater event “Welcome to Heimatland!” participants got to play the role of migrants arriving in a fictional country and trying to navigate its administration to understand what was expected of them. The event aimed to remind us that migration is not just about legal and administrative categories, but also involves emotionally and physically challenging interactions.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Switzerland has become a country of immigration. The proportion of the foreign population residing on Swiss territory is now around 25%, which is much higher than in most other European countries. Nevertheless, Switzerland is also characterized by a particularly restrictive admission policy for non-European nationals, which has been part of a long series of measures to limit immigration since the mid-1960s. Thus, the conditions of entry into Switzerland are very variable and contribute to structure a multi-speed system in which some foreigners have a wide range of possibilities to adapt to their new environment, while others are limited in their options and find themselves in situations of vulnerability and marginality.
Relying on the Body and Emotions in Addition to Intellect
With the participatory theater event “Welcome to Heimatland! Can you find your place?“, we wanted to engage in a dialogue with the population of the canton Neuchâtel to reflect together on the way migration is managed in our country. To do this, we imagined a country, Heimatland, which does not literally represent Switzerland, but rather offers a distorted fictional mirror. The aim was not to put on a show, but rather, through theatrical role-playing, to induce an experimental participatory process that mobilizes the body and the emotions, in addition to the intellect.
Invited to play the role of migrants with different statuses arriving in an unknown country, the participants had to understand and manage what was expected of them, formally and implicitly, to be able to hope to stay there. They evolved within a physical environment designed to represent the meanders of the administration of this fictitious country and were confronted by civil servants, who were not always complacent, played by professional and amateur actors. After the role-playing exercise, participants could reflect on the experience during a debriefing in small groups, followed by a collective discussion in the presence of migration experts. At the end of the evening, the participants received a brochure to extend their reflection and decipher several keys of the game in dialogue with the scientific research community on migration management in Switzerland.
Unsettling to Generate New Questions
By the end of the performance, many people told us that the emotional dimension of the immersive experience resonated with their experience as migrants or that it helped them to approach the topic of migration management differently and to want to know more. During the performances, the critical discussion with the experts was always lively and animated, thus demonstrating the interest of the audience and the potential of our ‘platform’ to initiate a citizen dialogue.
Our three-part structure – immersive theatrical role-playing, debriefing, and participatory discussion in the presence of specialists – worked particularly well to create an experience that unsettles and generates new questions. As the journalist, Frédéric Mérat, author of an article on our event published by ArcInfo, wrote, “The journey will prove to be both unsettling and instructive. The absurdity of certain situations will sometimes make you smile. Although the mechanics of the system are merciless. […] I came out of this fictitious country a little crushed, but more aware.”
Experiencing the Complexity of the System to Question Its Limits
If migration in Switzerland remains a sensitive and controversial subject, our event aimed above all to remind us that beyond legal and administrative categories, it is in the context of interactions between civil servants and migrants that the law is applied. These interactions imply an unbalanced power relationship due to the legal status of foreigners, but they also bring into play the emotions, sensitivities, and vulnerabilities of all those involved. Even If there might be leeway for both migrants and civil servants to influence these processes, the migration system in force, set up by the political body and approved by the population through a vote, will nevertheless constrain them. By briefly living the experience of a migrant in such a system, we hope that the participants will have been able to approach its complexity from a new angle and question its limits.
Laure Sandoz is the coordinator and scientific officer at the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research (LIVES), University of Lausanne. She is an anthropologist and migration specialist, who enjoys building bridges between science and the arts, as well as integrating emotions into knowledge production. She is also part of the creative team behind the comic “Living the Dream? The Odyssey of a Migration Enrepreneur.”
Nicolas Yazgi is an ethnologist and museologist by training and has taught at the Universities of Neuchâtel and Heidelberg. Today, he is mainly active as an author, playwright, curator, and creative consultant. He works at the crossroads of different fields: theatre, film, museums, academia, applied research, and cultural action.
This blog entry was originally published in French and as part of a blog series on migration management that was written around a Knowledge Theatre (‘Theâtre de la connaissance’) event held at the University of Neuchâtel from September 17 to 19, 2021. Participants were invited to immerse themselves in a participatory experience in which they played the role of migrants confronted with the administration of a fictitious country – a novel way of approaching this complex theme by mobilizing the body, the emotions, and the intellect.
