A "revolving platform"” “

From a land of emigration with almost 5 million citizens scattered in 122 countries to a land of immigration: that’s how Portugal has been transformed in recent years. It now has some 450,000 regular immigrants (5% of the population), especially from eastern Europe (in particular from the Ukraine) and from south-eastern Brazil (from the poor region of Minas Gerais). The problems of immigration are being discussed at the national meeting of the diocesan secretariats of the pastoral care of immigrants now being held in Funchal (14-18 July). The meeting has been convened by the immigration agency (Ocpm) of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference. Historical background. “The process of immigration in Portugal – explains Father Rui M. Silva Pedro, director of Ocpm – began in the Seventies, especially from Portuguese-speaking Africa and from East Timor, an historical consequence of the process of decolonization and consolidation of the new nations. Now a new cycle of migration has opened, and this time without the cultural, historical and linguistic links that characterized traditional immigration”. As has happened throughout the European Union, the presence of immigrants intensified and became diversified: people from the Maghreb, from Brazil, from India, China, Ukraine, Moldavia, Russia and Romania arrived in many different ways, but for the most part through “agencies” specialized in illicit activities, linked to the traffic in human beings; these violent criminal networks were unknown before 1999. Who comes and who goes. “We are a ‘revolving platform’ where people come and go”, explains Rui Pedro, recalling that some 27,000 Portuguese left to begin a new life in other countries last year. “Trying to be a good pupil of Europe – says Father Pedro – Portugal too proceeds by legislative ‘trial and error’, always imperfect and incapable of regulating the situation due to the lack of suitable administrative structures. The State recognizes that the Church plays a pioneering role in providing emergency hospitality, but rejects a large part of the proposals presented on social integration by the Collective of Catholic organizations of immigration, together with other associations of civil society”. What about Europe? “Europe also consists of its immigrants”, underlines Rui Pedro. He points out that, as far as immigration is concerned, “the EU tends as a priority to legislate to protect its own economic identity, its prosperity and national security. It shrugs off its responsibility to address the causes of immigration (hunger, underdevelopment, conflicts, foreign debt, corruption…) and the tragedies of the countries from which immigrants come”. “Even if programmes of cooperation, collaboration in the controls of immigrant flows and repatriation are announced – he says -, perhaps it would be better to be less hypocritical and stop selling arms to these countries”. The free circulation of people taking place in Europe, he notes, “is a sign of the times that, like all signs and symbols, conceals tensions and mental and cultural barriers that need to be overcome”. Citizens by full right. “We believe in a future in which resident migrants will be citizens by full right – he says –, because the idea of a common policy that recognizes that human rights are no longer linked to nationality, to territoriality, nor to the limited reciprocity between countries, has matured in the European consciousness”. It’s important, however, in his view, that “the representativeness of immigrants as a social category be increasingly guaranteed through the national advisory councils (if possible also at the European level) with a view to the integration of the different identities, the prevention of racism and xenophobia and the struggle – involving immigrants themselves – against the trade in human beings, whether for work or prostitution”. A sign of hope is the entry into force on 1st July of the UN Convention for “the Protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families”. The OCPM is engaged in the creation of a national Committee for information on and ratification of the Convention.