Five criteria” “” “

“Migration for economic reasons: balancing national interests and universal justice” is the title of a study of the committee of experts “World Economy and Social Ethics” of the German Bishops’ Conference, presented in Bonn in recent days. “Work in the promotion of integration, as well as in the field of refugees and the right to asylum, forms the core of the pastoral and social work of the Church”, declared Bishop JOSEF VOSS of Münster , chairman of the Commission for Migrants of the Bishops’ Conference, who presented the document together with Msgr. BERNHARD HASSLBERGER , auxiliary bishop of Munich and Freising, and GERHARD KRUIP , chairman of the committee. The study is the eleventh document published by the committee and, like previous publications, is aimed at providing guidelines for tackling current problems in the field of development policy. THE TWO SIDES OF THE COIN. The current situation of migration (12 million emigrants per year) is characterised, on the one hand, by a growing demand for ultra-qualified workers from the so-called developing countries with the consequent phenomenon of the brain drain. On the other hand, unskilled workers are trying to immigrate by evading ever tougher controls. This is a situation, said Bishop VoSS, that “may give rise to problems of justice”. “Curbs on migration are justifiable from a moral point of view only if the rich States finally decide to combat in a credible way the causes that are forcing people to leave their homeland”. The study formulates five criteria to be applied to tackle the problem: war against poverty in the countries of origin; limitation and compensation of the brain drain; limitation and control of migration; no absolute liberality but no absolute ban; ethically founded criteria for the selection of migrants, in particular the prevention of arbitrary decisions and of forms of discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnicity, nationality or religion; and respect for the human rights of migrants, in particular illegal migrants. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION. “In Germany, approximately 10% of Catholics are of a mother tongue other than German”, points out Voss. On the question of the regulation of migratory flows, he adds: “we in the Church insist in any case on the need for humanitarian standards, in particular the Geneva Convention for refugees, to be respected in controls on the frontiers. It is shocking that in the recent crisis of Ceuta and Melilla [on the frontier between Spain and Morocco] shots were fired at refugees… People who for whatever reason try to reach Europe cannot be treated as criminals. The events that are currently convulsing France show just how important successful integration is. In this context the fact that also in Germany a considerable part of immigrant youth drop out of school, and are denied opportunities in the training and employment markets, is profoundly disturbing. It is essential to offer these people prospects for the future to prevent similar situations [as in France] being created in our country too. “Is it right to control emigration?”, asked Bishop HaSSlberger in his intervention during the press conference. “Economic migration is a global phenomenon, whose scale and consequences are only rarely considered by public opinion. We are currently in an exceptional situation from a media point of view: the quantity of news circulating on clandestine immigrants who voyage on makeshift boats in the Mediterranean, on the dramatic events on the frontiers of the Spanish enclaves in Morocco, and on the civil unrest in the suburbs of French cities, show us how explosive is the political and social situation that may be linked to migration. THE TASK OF THE CHURCH. “Due to their image of man, their message and the plurality within them, the Christian Churches are particularly suited, but also obliged, to commit themselves to a world in which migration in dignity, if possible without tragedies, may be possible”, says the document. Principles such as the right to emigration (cf. Pacem in Terris) and the concept of the universal destination of the goods of the earth ( Centesimus Annus and Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church) are thus fundamental for the Church. While recognising the work that she must still perform to translate these principles into practice, together with the Evangelical Churches, which express fundamentally similar views on these questions, the Catholic Church is playing a valuable role at various levels in addressing the problems of migration and integration”. At the same time the document emphasises the efforts being made by the Churches “in concrete pastoral work at the level of the parishes and of the pastoral ministry for immigrants”, to “promote their integration by simultaneously fostering the willingness of the faithful in the host country to live together with immigrants and to respect their diversity. The Churches in fact consider themselves places of integration”.