The times do not favour it. It's not that there are few migrants and refugees to bother about. The difficulty is that they are many and growing.

Welcoming, not blaming

People who are doing it hard, as so many Australians and others are, in a time of gross inequality and economic pressure, readily see migrants and refugees as a cause of their own discontents and turn on them.

In the United States, Great Britain and in Europe we have seen how dangerous this behaviour is, how it can be inflamed by politicians and by social media, and how it threatens peace and civil order.

The same effects of economic pressures, ecological changes and armed conflicts are also driving more people to leave their homes and to seek safety and a decent life.

Many are displaced by war, discrimination and famine in their own nations. Many seek protection in other nations. People displaced in Myanmar and Gaza and Sudan attract the most attention, but are only a few of those fleeing from violence and poverty.

In prosperous times many people in developed nations are sympathetic to refugees and migrants and welcome them into their own societies.

In hard times, however, xenophobia spreads and is exploited by politicians who vilify refugees and demand that the nation be closed to immigrants.

This is notable in the United States and in many European nations, where small radical groups protest violently against immigrants and refugees, as well as against local minority groups. Governments often respond by cutting immigration and excluding refugees.

Australia, which had already adopted punitive measures to prevent people seeking protection, has come under similar pressure.

That is not surprising. People who struggle to find accommodation or to keep work can easily be led to see as threats people coming to Australia. They believe that governments should solve local problems first and only then admit others to Australia.

Although such opinions may not make economic sense and are self-centred, they are understandable.

The conduct of politicians and ideologues who spread false rumours against people from other cultures, stir up violent demonstrations, and depict refugees and immigrants from unfavoured nations as dangerous people who should be locked up, is less forgivable.

Our human family

In these times it is important to plead the cause of refugees.

It is even more important to open our minds and hearts to all the persons who are doing it hard, and not to barrack for some of them while lumping together others as things and not as persons.

As we reflect on the hardships which many people who live in Australia must bear, feel compassion for them, and argue for change in our unequal economy, our hearts should also open to the stories of people who have been forced from their homes and who seek protection and a new life in Australia.

Australians who do it hard and refugees are not competitors but our brothers and sisters.

In hard times it is easy to forget people.

Migrant and Refugee Sunday is a time for remembering. The need to remember and the decencies of remembering are enshrined in war memorials and in phrases such as the one attached to the Holocaust, ‘Lest we forget'.

Remembering is also central to the Abrahamic religions, whether focused on the liberation of the Jews from Egypt, the death and rising of Jesus and the martyrs, or the revelation made to Muhammad.

The need to remember has enriched languages and created alphabets.

In recent weeks the local services in Gaza have emphasised the importance of remembering by taking precious time to gather and publish the names of the 34,000 people known to have been killed in Gaza.

They may no longer be seen as numbers, ciphers in military and strategic calculus, but as persons.

Each has a name, each is unique and precious. They share that dignity with each person who lives with hunger, illness and fear in Gaza, in Mynamar, in Sudan and central America, and with each person who has escaped beyond national borders to seek life for themselves and for their families in other nations.

The call to remember extends also to our personal and national history. For all Australians that includes the immigration to Australia, forced or voluntary, of our ancestors and and the hope of a better life that they nurtured.

For many of us this history included flight from famine in Ireland, from poverty, from religious and ethnic discrimination, or from the effects of war. Our history also extends to all the people whom at different times we have excluded - Asians, Africans, Jews and even our First Peoples.

We all own a history that evokes gratitude, pride and shame. Migrant and Refugee Sunday invites us to think and act generously.

• First published in Eureka Street
• Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street, and writer at Jesuit Social Services.

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

Speaking on GB News on August 28, Rees-Mogg delivered what has been described as a "withering put down" of the Pope's recent comments on the migrant crisis.

"If the Holy Father wants them so much, he can have them in the Vatican.

"The Holy Father runs a sovereign state" said Rees-Mogg.

The former UK Conservative Party Cabinet minister's remarks came in response to Pope Francis's strong criticism of those who reject migrants, calling it a "grave sin" not to offer aid to those in distress.

Rees-Mogg further argued that the migrants "are safe in France", implying that their journey to the UK was unnecessary.

Recently, Francis strongly criticised the treatment of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe, saying it was a "grave sin" not to offer aid to vessels.

Rees-Mogg's comments come amid a surge in Channel crossings, with over 20,000 migrants having made the perilous journey to the UK this year alone.

On a single day last week, 526 people arrived illegally in UK waters in eight dinghies.

Maritime security sources suggest the UK is on track to exceed the 29,000 arrivals recorded in 2023 significantly.

The debate over migration policy has intensified following a tragic incident on September 3, when an overcrowded migrant boat capsized in the English Channel resulting in at least 12 fatalities.

While most crossings in 2015 were made by truck through the channel tunnel, sea crossings have surged since the port was secured.

From 2020 onwards, the market exploded. The number of shipwrecks also increased. "The boats are always overloaded; I even had one guy tell me he made the entire crossing clinging to the side of the boat, taking turns with others" said one commentator.

Rees-Mogg is known for his staunch pro-life stance. He is a traditional Catholic and attends Latin Mass.

His considerable personal wealth, estimated to be in excess of £100 million, has resulted in his facing criticism in the past for being out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

Sources

• GBNews
• LaCroix International
• Wikipedia

Francis was in Marseille to address a Mediterranean forum on migration.

The image was captured by Reuters photographer Yara Nardi who accompanied the Pope on his journey from Rome to Marseille.

"As soon as I revealed the photograph from its envelope, the Pope was visibly touched," recounted Nardi.

The atmosphere inside the aircraft grew sombre as Pope Francis remarked "They confine them in Libyan detention facilities, only to later cast them adrift at sea."

The poignant photograph, taken by Nardi the previous week on the small Italian island of Lampedusa, zooms in on the eyes of 18-month-old Prince.

The toddler, along with his mother Claudine Nsoe, hails from Cameroon.

They are part of a wave of thousands who have recently made the perilous sea journey from North Africa to Italy.

"He shook my hand and kept the photo," she said.

The encounter on the plane followed a stirring address in Marseille, France, where Pope Francis took a strong stance against rising nationalism and expressed deep concern over the global migrant crisis.

Speaking before a monument dedicated to lives lost at sea, the Pope was in the city to attend the Mediterranean Encounter ("Rencontres Méditerranéennes"), a forum that brought together approximately 120 young individuals of diverse faiths, and bishops from 30 different nations.

The Pope called on both individuals and nations to break free from the shackles of fear and apathy which he said subtly condemn countless lives to a grim fate.

"We can no longer be spectators to the tragedies of shipwrecks, fuelled by ruthless human trafficking and a callous disregard for human life," declared Francis.

Standing before the sea, a symbol of life but also a reminder of perilous journeys that have ended in tragedy, Pope Francis continued - "We convene here to remember those who didn't survive, those who were lost at sea.

"We must resist becoming numb to the news of shipwrecks, to seeing deaths at sea as mere statistics.

"These are not just numbers, these are individuals with names, faces, stories—lives that have been irrevocably broken and dreams that have been crushed."

His words served as a poignant reminder of the human cost of the ongoing migrant crisis and a call to action for a world he believes stands at a critical juncture between compassion and indifference.

Sources

• Reuters
• CNA
• CathNews NZ

The fires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere have emphasised the threat of climate change to people's lives throughout the world.

They foreshadow the future.

Less dramatically the gradual unrolling of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also revealed its threat to the livelihood of many white collar workers and its potential for blurring the distinction between reality and illusion.

It is one of many developments in technology with the potential to reshape human life. Experience tells us that any negative effects will fall most heavily on people on the edges of society.

For that reason those concerned with building a more just society will need to reflect more deeply and broadly on social justice.

The Catholic Church, among many other institutions, has a long tradition of such reflection, having responded initially to the world shaped by the French and the Industrial Revolutions.

The latter and the laissez faire economic assumptions that accompanied it disempowered and alienated workers and disrupted their personal and religious relationships.

Like others, Catholic thinkers worked to advocate for just economic and political relationships between workers, employers and governments asking how they ought to be shaped if they are to contribute to decent human living.

Climate change: a new threat to human flourishing

The reach of reflection on social justice then expanded to meet new situations and ideologies.

Increasingly devastating wars, economic depression, the rise of totalitarian regimes, the challenge of preserving peace, decolonisation, population growth, inequality and neo-liberal economic assumptions have all involved complex changes in social and economic relationships.

They have demanded constant reflection to ensure that people who are most disadvantaged are protected and supported.

Under Pope Francis, the scope of Catholic reflection on Social Justice has expanded beyond the focus on the economy, migration and war to include the environment.

It responded to the threat of climate change.

The development recognizes that human beings can flourish only if our personal and institutional relationships to the environment of which we are part are respectful.

For this reason any commitment to social justice through policies and programmes needs to take into account the effects of climatic change on people who are disadvantaged.

This expansion of social justice to include the environment has prompted the adoption of the term Integral Justice.

The threat of climate change, however, is of a different order than the previous challenges to human flourishing.

Threatening human relationships and future generations

In the first place, if it is unchecked it will threaten the delicate network of relationships that constitute our human environment, and as a result will threaten human life as we know it.

It is a crisis that extends beyond the shape of relationships between human beings to affect their very possibility.

It is therefore integral to reflection on the justice of all those relationships. As with other sets of social relationships people living on the margins will be the canaries in the mine.

Second, the decisions and social structures which we now implement or neglect to make in response to climate change will inevitably and irrevocably shape the lives of our descendants.

If we put our profit and comfort above reducing emissions our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

Thinking about social justice and the relationships between social groups then needs to think about the effect of what we do on future generations and especially on the marginalised. Social justice must also be intergenerational.

The urgency of the challenge of climate change may seem to be far higher than that posed by the initial development of Artificial Intelligence. Appearances, however, are illusory.

Public concern about AI has so far focused on its economic effect on employment in industry, planning, in creative work and in publications.

It may also affect human flourishing, however, through its effect on planning and implementing ideas, on physical presence to others in work and in recreation, and on the privatisation of truth.

When it is joined to the project of a metaverse in which brains are adapted to computers in a virtual world of the user's choice, the pressures on people who are marginalized will be incalculable.

Society's disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable

AI is only one of many technologies with the potential to affect human flourishing. Advances in genetic and nano technology also have the potential to alter human lives according to our choice.

We can imagine the power of genetic engineering to prevent hereditary illnesses, to create designer babies, to create human beings and hybrids in a laboratory and to introduce genetic modifications into human beings with incalculable results.

All these developments, and the profit that stands to be made by the large companies which fund them, pose important questions about what it means for us to be social beings accountable to one another.

Communal reflection and regulation of these developments, which have potential for good as well as for harm, are threatened both by massive inequality that enables those who develop the technologies to do so for further profit and also by a popular culture that privileges individual choice over the common good.

In such a world, people who are disadvantaged will be increasingly vulnerable to deprivation of agency, of sociality and to be seen as objects to be dealt with by new technologies.

For this reason, reflection on social justice must include in its remit the effects of new technologies on persons and their economic, political and environmental relationships. Read more

• Andrew Hamilton SJ is writer at Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne (Australia) and consulting editor of Eureka Street.
• First published at Eureka Street. Republished with author's permission.

It comes as pressure mounts on the Government to remove the immigration rule that binds workers to one specific employer.

A migrant worker Newshub spoke to was sold the Kiwi dream to be a chef.

"He treat like a slave, I am not a slave (sic)," he told Newshub.

His restaurant boss had been approved by the Government.

It was hell, he was trapped.

"Never I'm going to outside, in the building, on the building, I am just living in a small room," he said.

He was being paid the $30 an hour required to meet the migrant work visa rules but said his boss would go with him to an ATM and force him to give him most of his wages back.

The Migrant Workers Association had to rescue him.

"Not a day goes by when we don't hear from an exploited worker," said Anu Kaloti. Continue reading

Stats NZ said there was a provisional net migration gain of 15,800 people in 2022, compared to the net migration loss of 15,000 in 2021.

However, it remained below pre-pandemic net migration gains, which averaged 57,600 a year between 2014 to 2019.

"[Last year] was a year of two halves, with monthly net migration losses in the first half of the year more than offset by monthly net migration gains in the second half of the year," Stats NZ population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said. Read more

During his two-day visit to Malta, the pontiff visited the Peace Lab in Ħal Far where he met with migrants and warned authorities against becoming complicit in the violation of human rights.

Pope Francis heard the accounts of two men who recounted the arduous journeys they suffered to reach Malta. He was also presented with a life jacket, a symbol of the risks that migrants take when they make the journey to Europe.

Pope Francis told migrants St Paul and fellow castaways had been treated with "unusual kindness" in Malta.

However, the pope's message was not universally welcomed, with several people taking issue with his appeal for solidarity and taking to Facebook to vent their displeasure.

Overwhelmingly, the sentiment among users was that if the pope was concerned with the wellbeing of migrants, then he should "take them back with him to the Vatican". Continue reading

In Cypris, Francis warned Europe of its indifference to migrants, saying migration issues are something society is getting used to.

He went on to label the indifference "a grave disease for which there is no antibiotic".

The 84-year-old pontiff also said he regretted having to speak about such unpleasant things but added: "It is my responsibility to open eyes."

"Allow ourselves to be drawn into their suffering in order to react to our indifference; let us look at their faces, to awaken us from the sleep of habit", urged Francis.

Some 16,500 km away immigration lawyers and advocates are calling out New Zealand's indifference and its plans to open the border that prioritise tourists over separated Kiwi couples and families.

"We could be looking at well into 2023 until people can get their families into New Zealand", immigration lawyer Nick Mason says.

He cannot understand why tourists are getting priority over New Zealand citizens and their families.

Other advocates say the visa processing policies "continue to marginalise, confuse and discriminate" people.

To 'shake' the New Zealand indifference, some are resorting to legal action.

One man, Michael Witbrock, is taking Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and MBIE to court over his Chinese husband's 2019 Visa application being suspended.

Witbrock's lawyer, Denis Law partner Pooja Sunder says the decision to suspend applications is "unlawful".

She says it is unfortunate but her client's case is not unique.

"It is definitely representative of so many split families in New Zealand at the moment," Sunder told Mike Hosking on NewsTalk ZB.

"He [Faafoi] failed to consider the international obligations that New Zealand has signed up to ... like family unity, care of the child, the best interests of the child."

"Had he done so, he may have come to a different decision", she said.

Sunder says the New Zealand immigration rules are disproportionately affecting those from specific ethnic groups, gender identity, sexual orientation and religion.

In this regard, she is calling Faafoi's decisions "discriminatory".

Another victim of the policy, New Zealand-born teacher Sandeep Gosai, married in India in January 2020. He came home and his wife was to follow soon after.

"But then Covid hit and then ever since then it's just been a real mission to communicate with the government to get any sort of visa.

"They've just kept saying that when the borders open, they'll think about a visitor visa.

"And for a partnership visa, it's been really difficult because we don't meet the [Immigration Act's] living together requirements."

The government had refused to read a letter setting out their case and breaches of international law, Gosai said.

MBIE's immigration policy manager says no decisions have been made yet on how the final phase of border re-opening will happen.

Source

• RNZ
• France 24
• Newstalk ZB
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Newshub

The conference focused on "The Future of Work," is hosted by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), an organisation working in over 40 countries to protect and serve migrants and refugees.

The conference is part of an initiative aiming to bring together faith leaders and NGO representatives from the Asia-Oceania regions who are engaged in promoting decent work and fair policies related to migration.

Around 70 representatives from grassroots, regional and international organisations specialising in work with migrants and refugees are expected to be in attendance.

The main topics of the three-day meeting include child migrants and refugees, labour migration, human trafficking and smuggling, internally displaced people, implementing global compacts, inter-religious engagement, and the effects of social and environmental issues such as rural development and climate change on labour migration.

As the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' representative on the ICMC, Mrs Hickey will be chairing the roundtable discussion on human trafficking at the conference.

Prior to leaving for the conference, she said: "It is often women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by exploitation and trafficking. I am looking forward to us understanding ways to tackle this in our region, so that all migration journeys can be done with dignity."

Caritas supports and advocates for positive change for refugees and migrants through the global Share the Journey Campaign, Day of Prayer for Refugees and Migrants, the Community Organisations Refugee Sponsorship Pilot and the Rohingya Appeal.

Click here for more information about this work.

Let's take the recent changes aimed at limiting the ability of low-income migrant spouses to work here as an example.

While these changes are aimed at ensuring that those on partnership visas don't make it harder for local people to find low-paid work, the unfortunate reality is that these changes may end up as an own goal in the long term.

Balancing the needs of a host community with the needs of migrants is not always easy.

Certainly there is evidence from MBIE that in New Zealand's horticultural regions the employment of temporary migrant spouses is having a negative effect on the new hiring of beneficiaries and youth.

But the same reports show that in other places and industries temporary migration has a positive effect on the employment of New Zealanders.

What we can say is when it comes to building healthy resilient communities, the way a community treats migrants and the way migrants invest in their host communities are both really important.

Case studies in rural Queensland have found that when workers did not feel attached to a community they often underinvested in the long-term health of the community.

These studies also show when the community didn't invest in the migrants to ensure attachment with the overall effect, it led to a downward spiral in community connectedness.

The migrant and the community in effect became two groups of "consumers," taking from each other just what they wanted. The long term result was that a small town became an even less attractive place to be.

So how does a community build attachment to a place?

It often means ensuring migrants are seen as part of a wider family and community.

The way a community treats migrants and the way migrants invest in their host communities are both really important.

For us looking at the issue of spousal employment, it means doing everything we can to support spouses to be attached to a wider community.

Often this means finding meaningful work. OECD evidence from Norway, for example, shows that migrants with an employed partner are more likely to stay than those with an inactive partner.

For male migrants "the retention rate was almost twice as high when their spouse was working."

A similar effect was found in the Netherlands when looking at highly-skilled migrants.

We need to remember that even if the principal applicant is highly skilled, their spouse may not be.

A labour market test may compound the informal barriers that the partner faces.

Overall, building stronger communities needs more than just ensuring a local supply of workers. It means seeing these workers as part of a wider family and when it comes to migration policy focusing more on long-term outcomes than short term expediency.

Ensuring a community is strong requires that all kinds of people put down roots, claim a place as their own and work together to build a healthy community.

The welcome we offer to new members is the first opportunity to grow such a community.

• Julian Wood - writing for the Maxim Institute. Republished with permission.

In a well known example, William Rutherford Waddell found great inequalities and deprivation in the St. Andrew's parish of Dunedin during an economic downturn in the 1880s.

He was determined the church should make a difference in society.

He denounced the "sin of cheapness" in an 1888 sermon and criticised conditions of women textile workers who worked long hours in poor conditions for less than a living wage.

Following a campaign covered in the Otago Daily Times, in 1889 Waddell helped to establish the Tailoresses Union, which was New Zealand's first female trade union.

In the recently published report Making a Difference, (PDF), Richard Davis shares the results of his research into how faith-based organisations (FBOs) can contribute on today's social issues and effectively engage with national and local government in our own times.

Davis asks how FBOs can be a positive voice in social policy debates, and whether the government takes churches seriously in these discussions.

He also explores how FBOs might build better relationships with the policy community, and how they might assemble the information, data and research capacity needed to support evidence-based and robust contributions to political debates.

As Davis notes, there is a perception that churches are no longer central in public life, and no longer have an influence on social issues.

In the words of one commentator: "The church at the moment is relatively ineffective. She has a wide extension and a certain pervading influence but her action is not changing history at depth nor is she meeting the challenges of our time with the energy and speed necessary to save humanity from catastrophe.

Her potential is greater than that of any other institution or school of thought or way of life known to man - and yet so little happens."

Many might read the above and see it as a fair summary of the issues FBOs are facing today.

Yet, as Davis notes, this passage from Ormond Burton is not dated 2019 but 1970. How churches and FBOs can best adapt to their place in society is not a new question.

In the report, Davis sheds light on how FBOs seek to navigate and overcome the obstacles they face.

In practice, FBOs such as the Salvation Army, World Vision, Caritas, Tearfund, Presbyterian Support, Christian World Service and many others make a huge contribution to social wellbeing in New Zealand and overseas.

They find widespread support in wider society for their relief and service work. Yet, discussion of policy issues by FBOs and churches is a much more sensitive matter, even when the policy issues have a direct bearing on social welfare.

If FBOs and churches are to contribute effectively to social change, and not just provide social support, they must find ways to address policy makers on political matters.

Making a Difference: Faith-Based Organisations Contributing to Social Change in Aotearoa was originally commissioned from Otago's Centre for Theology and Public Issues by the Bishop's Action Foundation (BAF), to offer insights into how BAF can work most effectively.

The wisdom and experience shared by the interviewees has been used to shape and guide BAF strategy in its ongoing work for local communities in Taranaki.

With the launch of the University of Otago's new master's degree on "Faith-Based Leadership and Management" this year, this report is now published as an open-access resource for Otago students and the general public. It is available for reading or download from the Otago University Research Archive.

The interviews for the report were completed in 2013, and there have been important changes in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the globe over the years 2013-19.

On the global agenda there is a new awareness of the global challenges raised by climate change and migration.

At a national level, child poverty, housing, and family violence are all receiving more public attention. Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister, following the election of September 2017, and a new coalition government became part of the political landscape.

Yet, despite these important changes, there is much in the report that remains as relevant now as it did then.

Davis does not provide simple answers, but his work will stimulate a deeper discussion on how FBOs can confront the challenges they face and contribute to the common good.

• Prof David Tombs is the Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues at Otago University Centre for Theology and Public Issues.

First published in the ODT. Reproduced with permission.

Where Francis said politicians who build walls to keep migrants out would become prisoners of those barriers, Sarah said priests and bishops who defend migration are "bewitched" by political and social issues.

In explanation, Sarah, who is the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said migrants arriving in Europe were parked somewhere without work or dignity.

"Is that what the Church wants?"

In his view the Church should not support "this new form of slavery" because the West, with its low birth rate, risked disappearing.

"If Europe disappears and with it the priceless values of the Old Continent, Islam will invade the world and we will completely change culture, anthropology and moral vision.

"It is better to help people flourish in their culture than to encourage them to come to a Europe in full decadence," he said.

"It is a false exegesis [interpretation] to use the word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these heartbreaks."

Sarah, who is considered one of the most conservative voices in the Vatican, said priests, bishops and even cardinals are afraid to proclaim divine teaching.

"They are afraid of being frowned upon, of being seen as reactionaries. So they say fuzzy, vague and imprecise things to escape criticism, and they marry the stupid evolution of the world," he said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: LifeSiteNews

Jason is 17 years old, a Hispanic, born on the US side of the river, a spina bifida kid who lives in a wheel chair. His mum left him at birth.

Magda his grandmother, adopted him as her own and continues to care for him.

She married Herminio seven years ago an undocumented Mexican.

One can't imagine the feelings of a Spina bifida kid abandoned by his own mother.

His grandmother disciplined Jason for the questionable use of his cell phone.

Jason's response was to call the police and accuse Herminio of sexual abuse and Herminio fled to Mexico.

Jason confessed that he had lied.

Magda now faces a very bleak economic future having no bread winner and coping with her feelings toward Jason as well as how to make ends meet: rent, food, special care for Jason on the meager monthly pay check that Jason gets for his condition.

Martin is a bricklayer. Is undocumented.

He lived with his wife and three kids not far from me.

The eldest teenage daughter against all warnings by her Dad was using her cell phone in a unwholesome way. Her dad reacted and the daughter rang the police.

Her father was detained and eventually deported resulting in another split family.

Marlene was born in Mexico. She has had a checkered career as a young person.

She crossed the river to escape her past, married, had three kids, divorced because of domestic violence, and later married a widow with two grown up daughters.

Marlene was in the process of fixing her undocumented status now that she was married to a US citizen.

But then her step daughters obviously jealous that she was stealing the affection of their father, "potted "her as an alien and she was hunted and picked up at a traffic light and put in detention center six hours away.

Her 16 year son assumed the responsibility, and with the help of his grandparents who live over the river did all the paper work to have his mother cleared and sprung after three months during which time he also he took care of his two younger siblings.

Miguel is an undocumented Mexican.

Some years ago he was helping a coyote group take Central American aliens who had been helped to cross the river out to the 100 mile frontier zone and beyond to Houston.

It entailed leaving the highway before check points and taking the party by foot over rugged terrain to meet with transport awaiting them from the Houston side.

On one trip he fell in love with a young Honduran girl and took her back to Brownsville. They now have three kids. Miguel retired from being a coyote.

The money was good but it was too dangerous what with three kids to be a father to.

He is a good dad.

Now as a building laborer they are trying to pay off a house, but there is always the possibility that one day either of the parents will be picked by highway patrol (DPS Department of Public Safety)) who will call the border patrol and will face a deportation order.

Fear of this is a way of life.

27 years in Peru; 5 years in Venezuela; a stint in Australia: 5 years here in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico.

Now when I go home to "Aotearoa" it is as though I'm somewhat of a migrant.

A migrant is

• very conscious of not being from the place;
• feeling not to have the same rights;
• conscious of and having to come to understand the differences, and
• even learning to not understand even some of these and never of course judging.

In all the places I've been in, getting the correct documents takes time, the authorities and local community has always shown respect.

In the United States, the paper chase is way more detailed and takes much longer time.

However, being a priest and caucasian I it is easiy get the ongoing visas to stay here, and once again there is always respect.

The world has become much smaller and we are often made very aware of the plight of refugees from Asia, Africa, the Middle East crossing into Europe, and creeping down the Pacific.

The plight of these people is 'crude' to say the least, almost unbearable to learn about.

Solutions to issues that migrants face are likely to be far from any possible reality we can imagine.

It may also be true that excessive migration "risks upsetting the way of life".

I might have been be a migrant in various cultural settings, but my plight is nothing compared to the migrants I live among in Brownsville.

Maybe my life experience helps me understand and feel great empathy for migrants, but here on the border of this country whose leaders say is the greatest and the most powerful in the world, the situation for so many has its own type of fear, suffering and hopelessness.

Here there are

• thousands of central American minors escaping the violence and poverty and housed in refuge centers;
• mothers with their little ones some of who are separated from their children;
• mothers deported while the state assumes responsibility for their kids;
• adults: mexican and central americans (Guatamala, Salvador, Honduras and now Nicaragua) seeking refuge and a better life;
• others from these countries who have crossed and outstayed their visas;
• others who have managed to pass the stringent tests for residence;
• kids who have come with their parents at an early age and now have no future to citizenship;
• people who simply have come over the river without documents many of whom live in penury and constant fear.

With so many being deported, so many families being split apart that for many people, anxiety is their lot in life.

The situation is a bit like but far worse than the "overstayer times " in New Zealand in the 70's.

To top it off they are now sending the "National Guard" to the border.

• Tony O'Connor is a New Zealand Marist priest working in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico. He is a third generation kiwi; his first ancestor families traveled from Ireland and 1867 arrived in New Zealand. Like most poor migrants they came looking for a better life.
• This is the first of 6 pieces on his experience of life on the border between Mexico and the USA.

His taking of the name Francis, his eschewing the full papal vestments, and his appeal to the masses gathered in Saint Peter's Square below to pray for him, before imparting his own blessing, all indicated a more personal, pastoral style.

Francis, most commentators agree, was elected on his perceived ability to address the need for reform of a Roman Curia increasingly beset by paralysis, inefficiency and scandal.

It soon became apparent, however, that he saw this reform as a subset of a wider and more comprehensive renewal of the Church as a whole, one not so much theological in nature as, for want of a better word, popular.

Was this reform to be merely superficial in nature?

It is almost in parenthesis that we note Francis' pontificate coinciding with the rise of numbers of forced migrants to historically unprecedented post-war levels both in Europe and around the globe.

This presented Francis with a unique opportunity to develop and demonstrate his vision for a renewed Church, repositioned in and for a globalised world.

Notwithstanding the importance of other ethical issues, the complexity and nature of forced migration and its attendant ethical debates provides a unique challenges to Church.

It has been notoriously divisive, in seeming contradiction to the consistency, since the papacy of Pius XII, of Church teaching on the subject.

The difficulty is in the application, with responses necessarily involving ordinary people of all faiths and none, and institutions such as NGOs, governments and various multi-lateral bodies of the United Nations.

Within the Church itself the issue points to arguably impoverished concepts of sin and God's mercy and justice. Continue reading

Sources

• Eureka Street article by Australian Jesuit David Holdcroft, who is currently conducting a strategic review of post-secondary education in forced migrant settings for the global Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS).
• Image: America

The number of people worldwide who left their native countries in the last five years — in other words, migrated — takes up about one centimeter (three-eighths of an inch) of the tape measure. That number amounted to 36.5 million, or 0.5 percent of the world's population.

All others, or 99.5 percent of the global population, are non-migrants, or people who were living in the same country in 2015 as in 2010. They represent the other 199 centimeters on the tape measure.

This is the sort of thing you learn when you pay a visit to Guy J. Abel, the man who can load all the world's migrants onto his computer and draw colorful circles around them. The 35-year-old Englishman is a social statistician and population researcher at the Wittgenstein Center for Demography in Vienna.

Abel has developed a model to estimate and depict the actual dynamics of global migration. An examination of the results quickly shows that we have a lot of incorrect images in our heads. "I always felt that the traditional methods of estimating global migration were rather inadequate," Abel says.

The institute is part of the new Vienna University of Economics and Business campus, next to the Vienna convention center, a group of shiny, oblique-angled new buildings that look like something architect Zaha Hadid might have designed for a colony on Mars.

The Wittgenstein Center, on the second floor of building D5, is considered one of the most important research centers of its kind. Its researchers address existential questions such as these: Will there be too many people on the planet soon? (No.) Can the rich world survive the aging of society? (Yes.) Is Western Europe doomed because of its low birth rates? (No.) Continue reading

Sources

• Spiegel Online, from an article by Guido Mingels, a Swiss who lives in Hamburg and works for Spiegel.
• Image: HK Pinnoy TV

In a wide-ranging interview with a journalist from Portuguese radio station Renascença, the Pontiff said he wasn't pointing his finger "at anyone in particular".

"When there is an empty space, people try to fill it," Pope Francis said.

"If a country has no children, immigrants come in and take their place.

"I think of the birth-rate in Italy, Portugal and Spain. I believe it is close to 0 per cent.

"And this not wanting to have children is, partly - and this is my interpretation, which may not be correct -due to a culture of comfort, isn't it?

"In my own family I heard, a few years ago, my Italian cousins saying: ‘Children? No. We prefer to travel on our vacations, or buy a villa, or this and that' . . . .And the elderly are more and more alone."

The Pope said he believed Europe's greatest challenge is to go back to being a "mother Europe" as distinct from "grandmother Europe".

This echoes the speech Francis gave to Strasbourg last November when he described Europe as being "like a grandmother, no longer fertile and vibrant".

In the Renascença interview, the Pope said he had confidence in younger politicians to reclaim Europe's leadership role in the world and resist corruption.

He also expressed concern at the very high youth unemployment rates - approaching 50 per cent in some European nations.

Among the issues discussed at length in the interview was Francis's vision for a Church that risks getting "bruised" by going out to those in need.

He also threw in some humorous remarks.

Francis told the interviewer he goes to Confession about every 15 to 20 days and he joked about his confessor: "I never had to call an ambulance to take him back, in shock over my sins!"

Sources

• Renascença
• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The lines between migration and human trafficking all too easily converge. While migration implies a level of individual choice, migrants are sometimes detained and even tortured by the people they pay to lead them across borders.

Following the cash across borders - through a network of kingpins, spotters, drivers and enforcers - is central to understanding how this opaque and complex business works.

Everyone agrees there is not enough data. No one knows how many migrants are smuggled.

However, enough is known about the money paid - by Eritreans, Syrians, Rohingya, and Afghans, among others - to demonstrate it is a multimillion-dollar business.

As Europe debates measures ranging from military attacks to destroying smugglers' boats to increasing asylum places, what more can be done to prosecute those profiting at the crossroads of dreams and despair?

How much do migrants pay?
The cost varies depending on the distance, destination, level of difficulty, method of transport (air travel is dearer and requires fake documents) and whether the migrant has personal links to the smugglers, or decides to work for them.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says journeys in Asia can cost from a few hundred dollars up to $10,000 (£6,422) or more.

For Mexicans wanting to enter the US, fees can run to $3,500, while Africans trying to cross the Mediterranean can pay up to $1,000, and Syrians up to $2,500.

Abu Hamada, 62, a Syrian-Palestinian refugee, reckons he has earned about £1.5m ($2.3m) over six months by smuggling people across the Mediterranean from Egypt.

A place on a boat from Turkey to Greece costs between €1,000 and €1,200(£700 and £840), say migrants. Afghans pay between €10,000 and €11,000 to get to Hungary, which includes help from smugglers. Continue reading

Sources

• Clár Ní Chonghaile is a freelance reporter based in London. She has worked as a journalist in Paris, Madrid, London, Abidjan, Dakar and, most recently, Nairobi. The article above is from The Guardian.
• Image: bitlanders

My contention is that those who argue for open borders under-value a sense of place and the integrity of the nation as political community, but those who argue for closed borders over-value the nation as political community.

Instead, I will suggest we need a way of valuing our particular political community in relation to other nations and ultimately in relation to God, and that such a framework will enable us to make appropriate decisions about how to respect and value existing citizens and fulfil our duty of care to the refugee and vulnerable stranger from outside our country who nevertheless who seek a new life within our country.

In summary:

• those who argue for opening up borders see borders as a filter to keep out the bad and corrupt but at the same time, let in any individual who seeks to live in this land;
• those who argue for closing our borders see borders as a fence, a system of security and defence that protects and preserves what is inside from what is outside;
• but I want to argue that borders are a facewe turn to the world around us which tells them what kind of country we are and how are want to relate to those around us and whether we are hostile or hospitable.

Mass migration is a central feature and fruit of contemporary globalisation and will continue to be a central feature of social, political and economic life for the foreseeable future. Continue reading

• Luke Bretherton is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.