Pope Francis: “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating” migrants

Migratory movements “involve nearly every part of the world”; the “sheer number of people migrating from one continent to another is striking.” Pope Francis opened his speech to participants in the VI Forum on Migrations and Peace, organised with the support of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, by the Scalabriniani International Migration Network and by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, with the facts. In the Clementine Hall the Pope offered to those present – who will continue the conference today and tomorrow at the Chamber of Deputies – a sort of “Magna Charta” on migration. Four verbs for a “shared response” to this phenomenon requiring appropriate interventions on the legislative, economic and political planes: “to welcome, to protect, to promote, to integrate.” Four verbs – “to be declined in the first person singular and in the first person plural” – that are a close reminder of the key verbs of’Amoris Laetitia. Is it the Prelude to a forthcoming Synod on Migrations? Monsignor Silvano Tomasi, delegate at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, launched the Pope’s proposal in his welcoming address.

To welcome. Faced with ”the attitude of rejection” against migrants, “rooted ultimately in self-centredness and amplified by populist rhetoric, what is needed is a change of attitude, to overcome indifference and to counter fears with a generous approach of welcoming those who knock at our doors”, Francis said in his opening remarks, reaffirming his support to:

“open accessible and secure humanitarian channels” open “to those who flee conflicts and terrible persecutions, often trapped within the grip of criminal organisations who have no scruples.” Yes to “wisdespread programmes of reception.” No to “enormous gathering together of persons seeking asylum and of refugees”, which “has not delivered positive results” and instead created “new situations of vulnerability and hardship.”

To protect. “The migratory experience often makes people more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence.” In his speech the Pope refers to the “millions of migrant workers, male and female – and among these particularly men and women in irregular situations,” to refugees, and asylum-seekers, to the victims of human trafficking. “Protecting these brothers and sisters is a moral imperative which translates into adopting juridical instruments, both international and national, that must be clear and relevant; implementing just and far reaching political choices; prioritising constructive processes, which perhaps are slower, over immediate results of consensus; implementing timely and humane programmes in the fight against the trafficking of human flesh which profits off others’ misfortune; coordinating the efforts of all actors, among which, you may be assured will always be the Church.”

To promote. “Protecting is not enough. What is required is the promotion of an integral human development of migrants, exiles and refugees.” Once again, for Francis, “coordinated effort is needed, one which envisages all the parties involved: from the political community to civil society, from international organisations to religious institutions.”

However, the “human promotion” of migrants and their families begins with their “communities of origin.” That is where “such promotion should be guaranteed, joined to the right of being able to emigrate, as well as the right to not be constrained to emigrate, namely the right to find in one’s own homeland the conditions necessary for living a dignified life”, via “the implementation of programmes of international cooperation free from partisan interests, and programmes of transnational development which involve migrants as active protagonists.”

To integrate. “Integration, which is neither assimilation nor incorporation, is a two-way process” involving mutual rights and duties on the part of those who welcome and those who are welcomed alike. The latter in particular must be the object of

policies “directed at favouring and benefiting the reunion of families.”

“One group of individuals cannot control half of the world’s resources. We cannot allow for persons and entire peoples to have a right only to gather the remaining crumbs.” It is the heartfelt appeal contained in the final part of the speech, whereby Francis demands “a greater sense of responsibility for the common good from those who wield greater power.” “Ensuring justice – he said – means also reconciling history with our present globalized situation, without perpetuating mind-sets which exploit people and places, a consequence of the most cynical use of the market in order to increase the wellbeing of the few.”

“The duty of solidarity is to counter the throwaway culture and give greater attention to those who are weakest, poorest and most vulnerable”,

the Pope concluded, reiterating, once again, that “a change of attitude towards migrants and refugees is needed on the part of everyone”, moving away from “attitudes of defence and fear, indifference and marginalization” towards “a culture of encounter”, the only culture capable of “building a better, more just and fraternal world.” It is especially to children and young people who are forced to live far from their homeland and who are separated from their loved ones”, that Francis dedicated the recent Message for the World Day of Migrant and Refugees. No “lessening” of “dignity” to migrants whose status “is no regularised”, the Pope cautioned. “In the face of tragedies which take the lives of so many migrants and refugees – conflicts, persecutions, forms of abuse, violence, death” it is necessary to recover “the value of fraternity”, which “helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother.” Without fraternity “it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace.”