Experiential Learning to Prevent Xenophobic Behaviors Among Public Officers

In recent years, Colombia has experienced a massive influx of Venezuelan migrants that has generated social and political unrest in different fronts. However, evidence is lacking about effective strategies to reduce exclusionary attitudes towards migrants. The Inspector Attorney General Office (PGN for its initials in Spanish), as the guaranteeing entity for human rights protection, especially for vulnerable groups of population, has focused on strategies that reduce discrimination and exclusionary attitudes towards the migrants coming to Colombia from Venezuela. In order to focus its work on tools that are the most effective to achieve this goal, the PGN´s office for Human Right’s defense has partnered with the PGN Innovation Lab to implement and evaluate to different learning strategies. The first strategy is an experiential learning tool available in a platform developed by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) called “En Otros Zapatos” (or “In Other Shoes” and EOZ for its initials in Spanish). Through storytelling, EOZ seeks for participants to develop empathy towards outgroups by placing them in the shoes of a fictional character that belongs to an outgroup. The second strategy uses an informational approach that consists of providing information (data and figures) about the relationship between migration, crime, security and employment. The goal is that, through this information, officials confirm that some common beliefs about Venezuelans are not based on real data. The objective of this project is to identify what types of strategies are most effective in improving the attention provided by the PGN to the migrant population from Venezuela. In particular, it seeks to understand whether the generation of empathy, through experiential learning, can contribute to improving the capacity of the entity's officials to provide effective and timely attention to protect the human rights of Venezuelan migrants, and compare its effectiveness with an informational strategy.