Despite the growing numbers of individuals pursuing international migration paths, migrants continue to encounter prejudice and discrimination from members of receiving societies. These negative experiences can take a toll on their mental health and impede a process of healthy acculturation. Moreover, while psychological models portray acculturation as a mutual process influenced by the attitudes of receiving societies, migrants often face the misconception that they bear sole responsibility for their integration. In this context, an influential tool for raising receiving society members’ awareness of the challenges faced by migrants during acculturation is experiential learning, which is often based on interventions employing cognitive and active methods to enhance participants' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. We designed a role-play-based intervention based on the Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1984) and acculturation theory. A mixed-method assessment of its implementation among Portuguese nationals revealed the intervention was effective in increasing knowledge about migration and acculturation and fostering ethnocultural empathy and positive feelings towards migrants and refugees. This study conceptualizes our qualitative findings within the phases of the Experiential Learning Cycle to identify the processes underlying participants’ learning: a) the role-play represents a simulation (i.e., concrete experience) in which participants take the perspective of another person; b) the debriefing allows participants to reflect on their experience (i.e., reflective observation) through progressive “thought” questions that enable them to replay the simulation and connect with prior knowledge; and c) a small lecture facilitates participants’ learning from the experience (i.e., abstract conceptualization) through provision of migration facts and acculturation theoretical frameworks that enable them to bridge personal experience with social reality. These results show that this intervention is effective to increase knowledge and awareness of the acculturation process among members of the receiving majority and will provide a valuable tool for teachers and intercultural trainers in formal and non-formal learning settings.

We would like to thank the project mentors, Saba Safdar and Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka for their support throughout the development of our research.

Acculturation,Refugees,Role-play,Intervention-based design,Host/receiving society members,Experiential learning cycle