“We must never see in the immigrant the stranger, the foreigner, still less someone to be rejected. The migrant is a person with whom we need to work together to build together a future of hope”. That’s the position of the Spanish bishops responsible for immigrants in their message for Migrations Day, celebrated in Spain on Sunday 28 September. “This house belongs to us all. Let’s build it together” is the title of the message, which wishes to exploit the ‘background’ of immigrants by fostering a process of “mutual enrichment”. The bishops recall that “the immigrant is, first and foremost, a person, and not a tool at our service” and denounce the link drawn between immigration and civic insecurity. Hence the invitation to Spanish citizens to “build a brotherly society without eliminating differences”. The letter proposes that “immigrants be employed in the cultural, social and economic sectors, that spaces be created for dialogue, and opportunities provided for the promotion of justice and the defence of immigrants’ civil rights”. As far as illegal immigration is concerned, the bishops recognise that this “involves difficulties for integration, favours the black-market economy, generates delinquency and fuels xenophobia”. But in the view of the bishops, the solution to the problem is not to be found in zero-toleration laws, like the one that is likely to be approved in Spain in a few months’ time. “It would be better they write to exhaust the possibilities offered by the existing legislation to seek a solution to the situation of irregularity in as generous a manner as possible”.
