Who are the displaced with whom we will pass a few moments so as to be touched and taught by them?

 A few profiles.

       Mr X, a journalist, asked for asylum and was accepted in a European country as a political refugee. He had denounced the abuses and corruption of the members of the Government of his country so he was threatened with being arrested, tortured, or killed.  He had to leave his country.

      Cecilia saw the guerrillas kill her husband before her eyes and those of her children. Then she was told, “If you are not gone by tomorrow, we will kill you too with your children”. Obliged to abandon her land, she arrived penniless in an infested district of a large city nearby.

      Mamadou cannot care for his parents and family.  He gives all he has to embark on a “boat of death” which may take him to the Italian, French or Spanish border.  Some are living the same drama along the wall being constructed between Mexico and the USA.

      Kouakou dreamed of becoming a champion runner and died crossing the desert, trying to reach the coast of North Africa.  His friend was found dead from the cold in the hold of a plane where he had hidden in the hope of escaping.

     There are so many others who have tried and who, after having overcome a thousand dangers, after a life in hiding, fell into the nets of the police and were sent back to their country of origin by force, shame on their faces and despair in their heart.  And they will try their chance again at the first occasion.

      There are refugees from war-torn countries, civil wars or other, in all parts of the world.  They will add to the number of those who fill the refugee camps set up along the borders and who live in inhuman conditions and without hope.

       There are colonies of immigrants who camp in the most absolute poverty near the train stations or ports of northern France in the hope of escaping arrest and making their way to England.  Often they are condemned to roaming, depending on charity, where it exists, and they end up adding to the number of homeless, all relationship with their family broken because of the feeling of failure and degradation.

      There are those without legal papers who live hounded and in fear of being arrested. There are women from the countries of East Europe or elsewhere, lied to by con artists, recruiters of immigrants whom they reduce to the slavery of prostitution. There are thousands of workers in clandestine workshops, exploited like slaves and reduced to silence because of their illegal status.  Among these, we know women are particularly exposed to diverse abuses, discrimination and economic and sexual exploitation.

 

      The list is still long and all of us can see faces pass before our eyes and remember similar situations.

 

We are dealing with persons displaced within their own country, on the same continent, or displaced persons emigrating towards other countries or continents. Some seek asylum, others are exiles, refugees from political systems or from violence, all are migrants from misery… These are the ones of whom we speak.

 

The phenomenon of migration is not new. It has always existed. Immigrants who were integrated and given work have constructed entire countries. But today this question has become crucial because of the amplitude of the migratory influx that does not stop growing.

Trying to come up with numbers on a world scale is difficult. We have those of the UN High Commission for Refugees.  This organization states that there were 19 million in 2004, but these numbers concern only the category of refugees in camps established as a result of armed conflicts.  The Jesuit Refugee Service reports the number 45 million displaced and refugees but all the categories of immigrants are not counted. The UN, in fact, published that through 1980 there were 99 million migrants in the world; there were probably close to 191 million in 2005.

 The question is crucial also because it has become a worldwide phenomenon.  It concerns a very large number of countries if not all, in the North as well as in the South.

  I would not attempt to name the countries most affected.  Even if in the past few months the serious situations in Arbour and Sri Lanka have put them in the forefront, some massive displacements happen in silence or indifference because they do not make the news or perhaps the information is stifled.

 

It is difficult to name the countries because the question of immigration must be considered from two points of view, different but inseparable:

from the point of view of those who leave their place of birth and of life,

and from the point of view of those who receive them and from whom they ask asylum.

There is a good chance that the two sides of this problem, the departure and the arrival, today affect all of us here.  They are indissoluble but they touch us differently according to the part of the world in which we live.  I will therefore deal with both at the same time; it is a way of not oversimplifying such a serious human problem.

What are the problems generated by immigration and how do individuals and Governments deal with them?

 

The problem of blatant injustice between rich countries and poor countries, globally, the North and the South:  up what point do the first have the right to close their borders to protect themselves against what some dare to call an invasion?

The guarantee that the welcoming country will offer good conditions of integration for the  

immigrants.  How can we assure that these conditions are favourable for housing, work, the formation and education of children.

-    The capacity to live together in the villages and cities in which diverse cultures, ways of     living and religions interact, and where violence can erupt suddenly due to incomprehension and frustration.

The problem of transforming mentalities in the host country but also in the new arrivals, so that we can eliminate racism, contempt of other cultures, discrimination due to colour, facial traits, accents or religious mentalities. Attitudes must change so that the population considers immigration not only from the negative angle of the problems it brings, but also from the angle of its positive and constructive contributions to the host country.

 -    The countries exporting immigrants and the host countries that receives them must develop

      new political and economic relationships, a new partnership in view of developing

 local possibilities capable of bringing about the inversion of the migratory movement:  instead of closing their borders, the rich counties help the poor countries in their effort to develop an economy that assures a decent livelihood for all. On this subject we must not forget that, even in the present situation, the migrants contribute greatly to their country of origin.  Not only do they help their families   but they often form associations to finance small businesses, workshops, small enterprises, etc.

And there are so many other problems to face and to solve…

  

Now, we who are here, how and in what way does this question affect us?

       From only the humanitarian and moral aspect, it cannot leave us indifferent, but this responsibility must go further.  As believers, disciples of Jesus, baptized, consecrated, sent out to witness to the Gospel, our responsibility is already committed.

       As we know the Old Testament often mentions the immigrant and the stranger. Abraham hears the call of God Himself, leaves his country and becomes a stranger in a country that he does not know.  Jacob and his sons descend into Egypt to escape the famine.  Their descendants will know the lot of despised immigrants, submitted to slavery until the day Yahweh commands Moses to deliver them. Then there is a long exodus in the desert before reaching the Promised Land where the people struggle to find a place.  How was their arrival in the Promised Land perceived by the inhabitants of Canaan?  The Bible does not answer this question but we can wonder…

      We are not going to follow the History of Israel but we know that the experience of immigration is part of the history of God’s People, and what is more, it is part of its Profession of Faith.   We read in Dt 26: “Before the Lord your God, you will say: ‘My father was a wandering Aramaean, he lived as an immigrant.’” And in Lv 19,v.34 : “That immigrant who settles with you, you will treat him as one of you; you will love him as yourself, because you yourself were immigrants in the land of Egypt.”

… The widow, the orphan and the stranger are referred to together to be the object of particular attention. They are the poor, the small, those that must be protected.

 

      The New Testament leads us to meditate on the condition of Jesus who is born haphazardly during a trip imposed by the political authority and who must escape the violence of Herod and go into exile… By several parables that were disturbing for those who listened, by a few symbolic gestures, He will unsettle the good conscience of the Jews who were convinced that the stranger was excludes from Messianic Salvation.  We think of the Good Samaritan, of the Syro-phoenician woman, of the Centurion, of the references made to the widow of Serepta, of Sodom, Tyre and Sidon, pagan cities that will precede Israel in the Kingdom.

 This is more than sufficient to root our interest and our responsibility in relation to this serious worldwide problem of the displaced and deported of all kinds.

 

Now let us return to ourselves who are here and to the Sisters of our Congregations:

 

When, where, how, have I had the experience of feeling uprooted, a stranger, lost in a country that was not mine?  What were my feelings?  What allowed me to find my bearings and to eventually feel at home?

What are the cries, the distress that we have perceived in relation to the displaced?  Are we willing to make room for them in our lives, in our towns, in our budgets? We may have done so already, but how can we go further still?

What can we suggest so that we and our Sisters can understand and meet this worldwide challenge?

Let us remember Mt 25: I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was naked, sick, in prison; I was a stranger…

 

     Disciples of Jesus, men and women religious, will we be part of the crowd of anonymous men and women who never knew the gospel message but who welcomed their brethren in the stranger, and welcomed the Lord Himself?  

 

 

It is a thread to weave, a sign to give, a spiritual path to trace, a gift of the Spirit to receive so that with our brothers and sisters in humanity we may succeed in building the Kingdom of God, the house of Pentecost.