IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING FOR REFUGEE - HOST CONTEXTS

The increasingly complex interactions between asylum seekers, refugees, and host communities in the UK—often influenced by misleading narratives in mainstream and social media—creates an opportunity for innovative, evidence-based interventions to improve mutual understanding. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) offer a promising approach by enabling users to engage in perspective-taking through embodied experiences, which have been shown to influence attitudes towards stigmatised groups (Banakou et al., 2016). The project will be co-designed using participatory research methods to draw on the expertise and experiences of refugees and of non-academic stakeholders involved in refugee integration, including support workers, public servants, policymakers, and community leaders. This project will develop and evaluate the impact of a prototype immersive experience that simulates key aspects of the refugee journey within the UK context. The experience comprises a three-part multimodal narrative: (1) real-life testimonies of refugees presented within a virtual environment; (2) a contextual module illustrating historical experiences of forced migration and asylum processes; and (3) an interactive VR scenario in which participants embody an asylum seeker undergoing an interview with an immigration officer. Self-reported scales will assess changes in attitudes, empathy, and perceptions towards refugees before and after participation. Using data collected from self-reported scales and other qualitative indicators, including participant evaluations before, during and after the event, the project aims to generate preliminary indicators of the effectiveness of immersive storytelling and virtual embodiment in shaping intergroup attitudes (Vervoort et al., 2011), while demonstrating the potential of VR-based interventions for training and capacity-building across professional and community settings.