Volunteering makes the Tauranga migrant feel at home.

Rigon (photographed with his family), who moved to Tauranga with his wife Joy and their three sons in 2017, has dedicated himself to supporting the rapidly growing Filipino community in the area.

The family chose New Zealand for its appealing environment.

"I'd heard many good things about New Zealand and my wife has relatives already living here" Rigon said.

"It's less congested in Tauranga. Many Filipinos move here and families often follow each other."

Under Rigon's leadership, "Club Filipino" organises an annual meet-and-greet event for new migrants.

The event provides essential information on the likes of road safety, immigration rules, banking and local laws.

It aims to equip newcomers with the knowledge they need to navigate life in New Zealand effectively.

All migrants welcome

The event is open to all migrants, not just those from the Philippines, showcasing the club's commitment to inclusivity.

Rigon noted that approximately 4,300 members are part of the club's Facebook group, with about 70 percent of them still residing in Tauranga.

The club also facilitates the donation of furniture and household goods to assist new arrivals in setting up their homes.

In addition to the meet-and-greet, "Club Filipino" hosts a three-day cultural event during Matariki, featuring sports, arts and crafts and other activities that promote cultural exchange among different migrant groups.

Rigon's commitment to volunteerism extends beyond his role at "Club Filipino".

He previously served as Youth President in his village in the Philippines and worked as a sports coordinator at an international school in Thailand.

His extensive experience in community service underlines the importance of volunteerism in fostering community cohesion.

Rigon's efforts help newcomers feel at home and strengthen the community ties that bind Tauranga's multicultural society together.

Source

• Sun Live

He reminded those celebrating St Patrick's feast day last Friday to remember the plight of migrants.

"As Irish people, we cannot think of Patrick without acknowledging the enormous humanitarian and pastoral challenges facing growing numbers of people who find themselves displaced and without status in our world", he said. Read more.

Now some of the numbers are coming to light of the change in European states' population make-up over the past year. The Pew Research Center has analysed the change in the percentage of European nations' population that is "foreign-born", drawing on UN and Eurostat data.

From July 2015 to May 2016, more than one million people applied for asylum in Europe. (I assume that the data is available only for those migrants who are officially recognised and not those who have "vanished".)

First off, this number of one million in all of Europe seems low: didn't over one million claim asylum in Germany alone last year? Perhaps it is down to the time frame…

Anyway, during the time in question, the foreign born populations of four European countries grew at one percent or over: Sweden (an increase of 1.5% to 18.3%); Hungary (1.3% up to 5.8%); Austria (1.1% up to 18.5%); and Norway (1% up to 15.3%).

As the Pew Research Centre notes, this may not seem like a lot, but the immigrant share of the population in the United States grew by one percent over a decade (13% in 2005 to 14% in 2015).

A one percent increase in a single year is rare, particularly in the West. Other significant rises were seen in Finland (up 0.8% to 6.5%), Switzerland (up 0.8% to 30.1%), Belgium (up 0.8% to 13%) and Germany (up 0.7% to 15.6%).

At the other end, five European nations saw the foreign born proportion of their populations decline slightly: Lithuania; Spain; Slovenia; Estonia; and Latvia. Slovenia is interesting since it lies right on the route between the Balkans and Germany; its attempts to shut down its borders were obviously successful.

Apparently many of the foreign born Latin Americans returned home from Spain last year and many of the ageing immigrant community in the Baltic states are starting to die. Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet article by Marcus Roberts who has just started a new job teaching contract law at Auckland University.
• Image: Aljazeera

He sits in a migrant detention centre in Zawya, Libya, surrounded by hundreds of fellow asylum seekers who nearly died this week at sea.

They survived only after being intercepted, detained and brought back to shore by Libyan coastguards, ending a week in which they went round in circles, starving and utterly lost.

But despite their horror stories, Abdallah, 21, says the journey that his fellow inmates barely withstood - and that killed more than 450 others this week - is his only option.

"I cannot go back to my country," says Abdallah, who is from Darfur, in Sudan. He left for what is now South Sudan in 2006, after he says his village was destroyed in the Darfur war, his father died, and his sisters raped.

But in South Sudan, another war later broke out. So he made his way through the Sahara, a journey that he says killed his brother and cousin, to Libya.

And there last year, he was witness to his third civil war in a decade - a war that still drags on, its frontline just a few miles from the camp at Zawya.

"There is a war in my country, there's no security, no equality, no freedom," Abdallah says. "But if I stay here, it's just like my country. There is no security, there is violence. When you work, they take your money."

He worked in a soap shop, and saved up to pay local smugglers for the boat to Europe. But just as he hoped to complete the payment, he was robbed, and then arrested.

The recounting of his ordeal brings out first the tears, and then a conclusion: "I need to go to Europe." Continue reading

Source and Image:

• The Guardian

Officially part of Sicilian territory, the isolated island of 5000 inhabitants is less than 115 kilometres from the coast of Tunisia, making it a beacon for asylum seekers fleeing the poverty and violence that has accompanied the Arab Spring.

Of the 7913 refugees who arrived on the Italian coast in the first six months of this year, 3648 landed on Lampedusa.

Numerous refugees have died at sea, Archbishop Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento, Sicily, told Vatican Radio, but "the number of deaths does not seem to be of interest because they have black skin".

Archbishop Montenegro paid tribute to the generosity of the island's residents, who have been "giving everything" to help the migrants, who often come with nothing on perilous, flimsy boats.

"[My people] have emptied cupboards, have provided showers, luncheons, goods, clothes," he said.

The prelate revealed that he invited Pope Francis to visit Lampedusa during his May 20 ad limina visit. "I saw the Pope paid close attention to the news I gave him, and I said it would be good if he wanted to come."

During his visit to the island, the Pope "will commit a wreath to the sea in memory of those who lost their lives in the shipwreck", the Vatican announced, before he meets with migrants, celebrates an outdoor Mass, and visits the island's parish.

"Immigration is not an ‘emergency'; we must have the courage to stop using this word: It is the way things are," Archbishop Montenegro said. "Today, 10 will arrive, 100 will arrive, 1000 will arrive; but the problem is not because they arrive in the thousands. The problem is also there if only 10 arrive, because they are 10 men who want to live."

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Vatican Insider

Image: English-Online