Russia, The Land of Opportunity board game is a means of talking about the possible ways that the destinies of the millions of immigrants who come annually to the Russian Federation from the former Soviet Central Asian republics to earn money play out.
Our goal is to give players the chance to live in the shoes of a foreign worker, to feel all the risks and opportunities, to understand the play between luck and personal responsibility, and thus answer the accusatory questions often addressed to immigrants – for example, “Why do they work illegally? Why do they agree to such conditions?”
On the other hand, only by describing the labyrinth of rules, deceptions, bureaucratic obstacles and traps that constitute labor migration in today’s Russia can we get an overall picture of how one can operate within this scheme and what in it needs to be changed. We would like most of all for this game to serve as a historical document.
Russia, The Land of Opportunity board game was designed by:
Andrei Yakimov (human rights consultant, concept development)
Olga Zhitlina (idea, concept development)
Alexander Lyakh, Galina Zhitlina (board game design)
David Ter-Oganyan (drawings)
Tatyana Alexandrova, Nadezhda Voskresenskaya (graphic design)
Thomas Campbell (translation)
The characters, situations, and monetary
amounts (fi nes, payments, bribes, etc.) are not
fi ctional. Any resemblance to actual events is
not coincidental. Each year, thousands of
people are victimized by the system outlined
here.
Source: Memorial
Anti-Discrimination Center,
St. Petersburg 2010–2011;
Andrei Yakimov, consultant
You can download a .pdf file of the game here: http://chtodelat.files.wordpress.com/20
comissioned by chto delat