“European policies to help foreign students who often feel lonely and abandoned”: the request emerged during the annual Assembly of the Service of the European Churches for international students (Secis), held in Barcelona from 10 to 14 July. An umbrella organization that brings together the foundations and services for the reception of foreign students, Secis intends to bring pressure to bear on the European organizations, so that they concern themselves not just with student programmes (Erasmus, Leonardo Da Vinci and others), but also with assisting young people who go abroad to study. The objective of this year’s Assembly was that of verifying whether “migration is a resource for cultural exchange”, explained the organizers. The meeting underlined the need for “each individual Church to respond to the reality of student mobility”, especially to that of students from eastern Europe and from non-European countries. The delegates, from ten European countries, denounced “the abandonment” of so many students 1.6 million people in the world are foreign students who often feel lost and without contacts in their host country. The denunciation is made by Hermann Weber, secretary of the office for Afro-Asian students in Germany: “The European programmes he said lack the integral accompaniment of students, also in terms of their spiritual needs”. Some European episcopal conferences have long been organizing services for the reception of foreign students, to help them maintain their origins and roots. All these services are federated in Secis (www.secis.be.tf). The activities include: hospitality, pastoral guidance, education, facilities for finding student residences and lodgings, student grants, assistance in general. More than focusing directly on spiritual needs (sacraments, catechesis), these structures aim primarily at personal meetings, expressions of hospitality and direct assistance. “The aim is to integrate students in our living communities – explains Llum Delàs Ugarte, delegate of the Spanish Episcopal Conference -, to help them not only to cope in financial terms with study and work, but also to accompany them in the faith, and to place them in contact with other persons. In Spain we offer hospitality perhaps with meagre structures or resources, but in quality and quantity”.
