The choices of the young

Immigrant youth of the second, third or fourth generations will be the focus of attention of the European Churches during the meeting of national directors for the pastoral care of migrants in Europe, to be held in Sigüenza, in Spain, from 21 to 24 September. Promoted by the CCEE (Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences), it has as its theme “Migration and youth: a chance for the Church and for society in Europe”. It will be attended by some fifty delegates from 25 Bishops’ Conferences. We discussed it with Father HANS VÖCKING of the CCEE. It’s the first time for the European Churches to discuss immigrant youth? “Yes, we chose this theme because we realized there’s so much work to be done in our daily pastoral service. Some breach with the conduct of their parents can be ascertained. So we posed the question: how far can the ethnic communities intervene with youth, who are now a bit more integrated in the host society thanks to the educational system and work? And yet there’s still a strong attachment to their own national community and its respective mission. A second problem encountered by missionaries and pastoral workers is that of the many young political refugees who enter into contact with their reciprocal national communities. This raises another question: how can we respect the choices of the young and at the same time integrate them in the pastoral work of the mission”. Is the European Churches’ position on migration the same everywhere? “In all the Bishops’ Conferences there’s a common position that has been maintained for some forty years, i.e. ever since mass immigration began. It’s a position linked to providing a welcome and conceived as an expression of ‘caritas’. The Catholic Churches are always the ‘advocates’ of immigrants in social policies. Common approaches are also sought, with the Churches of the countries of Eastern Europe, with the Anglicans and with the Orthodox. In Brussels the various Churches often adopt a common position, because all of them think on the basis of the human person”. What issues will be tackled in particular, and with what approach? “We will present a panorama of the complex youth situation in immigration, including the problems and the responses to give to them. We will listen to testimonies of those who have worked for 20 years in the pastoral care of migrants in the urban outskirts of Paris, and in Brussels, a truly international city, formed of many youth who work there or of the children of foreign bureaucrats. Young Muslims and Buddhists will also be present at the meeting, also because youth live a good deal in an inter-religious context in schools and universities. We will propose an optimistic perspective, recalling that migration forms part of European society: it’s a phenomenon that cannot be stopped”. But immigration policies are not so optimistic right now; even Spain in recent days has had to crack down…What’s the solution? “At the present time the debate in each country is really challenging. If Europe looks to its own social situation, it will realize its obligation to let immigrants come in, but in more recent times it has had more need for skilled personnel, such as engineers, technicians, and nurses. Manual labour is no longer needed, except in agriculture. Europe now wants to curb clandestine immigration in Spain and in Italy, where it is no longer possible to control it. But it also knows that those who arrive on our shores are seeking a better life; they are young people who migrate to maintain their families that have remained back home. However, many of them cannot be placed on the labour market because they have no qualifications. At the present time this is a matter for intensive discussion in the European Commission and Parliament. The point is how to organize regular immigration according to the needs of the various countries”. In recent days the human rights organization “Human Rights Watch” has denounced abuses and violations against migrants in Libya that also involve European countries. Who’s responsible? “That’s the negative side of this irregular immigration. So many young people are fleeing from African countries due to cultural problems and poverty. Initially the countries of the Maghreb allowed these migrants to transit; then a negative effect was created both for the local and for European societies. So attempts were then made to seek an accord between the countries of the Eu and those of the Maghreb, to try to curb immigration. The Europeans financed the project, but the work is performed by the Maghrebis. It’s a rather distorted situation, because responsibility to act elsewhere is delegated to others, especially to those incapable of controlling either the frontiers or the internal social problems created by migration of this type. The basic problem is to understand what Europe needs to do to improve the economic, social and cultural situation of the African countries. But people aren’t yet ready to cure the evil at its root. We need to rethink the whole of our policy of aid to development to stop this exodus, even if mobility forms part of globalization and the media continue to give false information and create false dreams and expectations about Western society”.