About the collection of video interviews with migrants 

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A collection of video-recorded interviews with migrants is available here to students and teachers. This collection holds interviews with persons who went through immigration or displacement and with those who seek asylum in Israel. The interviewees, like most Israelis share the experience of being uprooted from their homes and adapting to a new environment. We believe that the study of these experiences and education about them, may promote understanding, tolerance and cohesion in the Israeli society.  

 

The interviews were collected by students in DEMO courses. Posted are only the interviews of those who gave their consent (in writing) for posting on the website. Each interview is accompanied by a short summary and key words in the collection's index, which makes it possible to search for specific items. The collection is being continuously updated. Based on our experience, we recommend the following uses of these video-interviews: 

• Presentation of interviews in class to initiate an open discussion on the experience of migration.

• Presentation of selected extracts from interviews in class to trigger a discussion on focused issues (for example, migration in adolescence, families' migration, voluntary vs. forced migration, the experience of asylum seekers etc.).  

• Presentation of interviews to engage students' motivation to perform interviews with migrants as a course assignment or research project. 

• Presentation of interviews in conferences and other academic and professional settings to demonstrate personal experiences of migrants. 

• Analysis of interviews on selected topics for academic papers and publications.  

 

References 

(On the use of narrative in teaching about migrants' lives)

 

Mirsky, J. (2008). The use of narrative analysis and psychoanalytic exploration of group processes in multicultural training. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. 5(1):2-15.

 

Mirsky J. (2011). Working through counter-transferencial blocks in cultural-competence training. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 18(2), 136-148. 

 

Mirsky, J. (2012). In praise of cultural-competence training for mental health professionals   Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 49(3), 227-234. 

 

Mirsky, J. (2013). Getting to know the piece of fluff in our ears. Expanding practitioners' cultural self-awareness. Social Work Education, The International Journal, 32 (5), 626-638. 

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Index of interviews with migrants in the Ben-Gurion Archive - Hebrew

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Playlist of video-interviews with migrants in the Ben-Gurion Archive