Fr Min Kim SJ, Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific Coordinator for the Migration network, shares his realisations and the apostolic responses of Jesuit conferences around the world towards the situation of refugees and migrants from the meeting of the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN) on migration in Johannesburg, South Africa held from February 5 to 9.
Migration has become a keyword in understanding the reality of the current world in which we live. Fr Aloysius Mowe SJ, Jesuit Refugee Service International Director for Advocacy and Communications, summarised for us two Global Compacts concerning the refugees and migration. He said that as long as 84 percent of refugees are living in the developing world, aid budget should keep pace with the number of people in need.
It was very interesting to see the dynamic conversation between the reality of migration and our apostolic responses that take various forms in accordance with the different contexts and localities in Latin America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and South Asia.
We know in Asia Pacific that, besides refugees, migration is a very complex issue. Each country has its own context and it is a challenge to find common ground for mutual collaboration among Jesuit migration centres. For example, China and the Philippines are among the top 10 suppliers of temporary contractual migrant workers in the world so protection for migrant workers is a major issue, whereas in Japan and Korea, the need is more on awareness raising and advocacy about migration. It is nonetheless inspiring to see the close collaboration between Jesuit institutions in sending countries and Jesuit migration centres in receiving countries.
In Africa, the situation is made more complex by the twin problems of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The number of internal migrants in Africa exceeds the number of people going out of Africa. Partly because of the many urgent calls from refugees and IDPs and partly because of the lack of human resources, Jesuits in Africa face a big challenge. Fr Rampe Hlobo SJ expects Jesuit social centres to play an important role in increasing awareness about the root causes of migration and refugees. He hopes that Jesuit social centres can carry out research to help in apostolic planning for migrants and refugees.
In Europe, member countries of the European Union (EU) try to control the flow of migration. They want to prevent the phenomenon of migration from reaching Europe by turning the direction of migrants towards third countries such as Turkey. Miguel Gonzalez from the Jesuit Conference of European Provincials noted the underlying idea of “we will be ‘generous’ with refugees, but harsh on migrants”. In reality, refugees fail to experience generosity and hospitality in EU member countries. Hence, Jesuit communities in Europe open their doors to migrants and refugees and live with them. This attitude of openness comes from a culture of hospitality, which Pope Francis has been promoting. From their response on migration, we can find prophetic inspiration for our own apostolic response.
Pope Francis uses four verbs – “welcome”, “protect”, “promote” and “integrate”, or building a bridge. These reflect the changing mentality of the Jesuit apostolic response regarding migration and refugees. Until recently, our responses have focussed on addressing the problems and challenges of migration and refugees in the form of direct services such as shelter, labour counselling, medical service and education, among others. Nowadays we are realising more and more that we should open our doors to migrants and invite them to be our neighbours.
We were moved when we heard of the Jesuits in Europe opening their doors to the migrants and refugees. In this line of thinking, we all acknowledged how important it is to welcome them and to put an emphasis on host communities. Otherwise, we run the risk of treating migrants and refugees as only the poor and miserable to whom we have a chance to show our hospitality and generosity.
Main image from the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar