The Churches at the side of foreigners” “” “

Spain, where immigrants form 2.5% of the population (with an increase of 122% over the last few years), is unprepared to cope with this recent influx. That’s why the Church is devoting a great deal of effort to heightening people’s awareness of the issue so that they don’t perceive the phenomenon as a threat to their own well-being. In the dioceses efforts are also being made to integrate Catholic immigrants in the life of the parishes, while opportunities for meeting and getting to know each other are organized with non-Catholics. A new document of the Spanish bishops on the pastoral care of immigrants is also being prepared. In Portugal too immigration is a recent phenomenon, especially from the Ukraine (100,000 Ukrainians out of a total of 400,000 immigrants). Here a collective of six Catholic organizations has been formed; they are interlocutors in discussions with the government about how to support and defend the rights of immigrants. In France part of the pastoral work is aimed at the children of immigrants. A network has been created on the territory to assist adolescents from immigrant families. Another frequent problem is the occupation of churches by the so-called sans papiers (clandestine immigrants) and the difficulties experienced by asylum-seekers. In this regard, the French Church recently published a dossier denouncing the shortcomings of the asylum procedure both in France and in Europe and lists a series of proposals. Italy too is engaged in regularizing clandestine immigrants. At the pastoral level, it is also organizing a conference to be held next February (in liaison with national offices for catechesis, missions and migrants) on how to heighten the responsibility of immigrants in social and ecclesial life. In the Scandinavian countries the Catholic community is very small (from 0.2% to 2% of the population, depending on country) but has increased thanks to the recent influx of immigrants from abroad. In Germany a new law was passed last year aimed at the integration of immigrants. The big problem is posed by irregular immigrants (estimated between 500,000 and 1 million), to whom the Church has also dedicated a publication. Attention is also being focused on other priorities: access to education for the children of immigrants without papers, the right to healthcare and safeguards on the workplace. A similar situation is encountered at the legislative level in Austria, where integration means schooling (otherwise immigrants risk expulsion). Here the Church has taken steps to ensure that some priests spend half their time in the parish and half in ethnic communities. In seminaries too formation is being increasingly focused on the problems of immigration, often including visits to local mosques. Switzerland, where foreigners now form 20% of the total population, is third in the European league table of the ratio between immigrants and residents. The legislation on immigration is being reformed, and will become more restrictive towards non-EU immigrants. That’s why the Church is campaigning to ensure that the human rights of immigrants be guaranteed and against the trade in women for purposes of sexual exploitation. In Ireland immigration only began in a big way five years ago and only recently has the Church begun to tackle the phenomenon as something “permanent”. In Eastern Europe the situation of Albania is particularly acute. Albania is notoriously the land of emigration: 50% of all Albanians now live abroad. The problem is caused by the very young age at which people emigrate and the girls from mountain villages, often without education and under duress, who are involved, against their will, in the white slave trade. It’s here that the Albanian Church is trying to intervene with activities of formation and support for youth employment in animal husbandry and agriculture, but also with preventive information to girls at risk and also by helping them to find somewhere to live when, on quitting the prostitution racket, they are rejected by their own families. Poland is primarily engaged in supporting the missions to their national communities abroad, but recently small influxes of Ukrainians, Slovaks, Turks and Russians has begun to enter the country. Hungary for its part has accepted 15,000 refugees from Afghanistan and Kazakhstan and the Church is heavily involved in the pastoral care of gypsies. There are even parishes organized by gypsies. Romania has witnessed, over the last ten years, the emigration of between 800,000 and 1 million of its citizens to Europe, the USA and Canada. Even higher is the number of emigrants from Bosnia and Croatia: there are now some 2 million Croatians and Bosnians abroad. Slovakia has been transformed from a country of emigration to one of immigration, mainly from the Ukraine. The same goes for the little island of Malta, transit route for clandestine emigrants from North Africa and Turkey. P.C.