On Wednesday, April 10, the European Parliament voted on the European Pact on Asylum and Migration. JRS Europe directors jointly opposed the pact and urged European institutions to reject it: "We cannot support a system that will allow the systematic detention of thousands of people, including children, at the EU external borders."
Migration
Walking with the excludedObjectives of the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN) of Migration
Forced migration is not only one of the greatest challenges we encounter in the world today, but a clear indicator of how the causes of injustice operate as a driving force for the expulsion of at least 71 million people in the world (UNHCR figure in 2018). We include internal displacement and people forced to leave their countries of origin.
The Society of Jesus has been accompanying refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons for 40 years in a special way. It is a privileged actor who knows both about the causes of expulsion and the situation of the migrants themselves, due to the capillarity of its presence with a multitude of works that work with people in situations of forced migration.
Building a new culture of hospitality, promoting
social and political advocacy strategies, sharing a continuous analysis of
context or sharing good practices in the service, defense, accompaniment or
care of the teams themselves, are real possibilities for action in the field of
GIAN.
Universal Apostolic Preferences: Walking with the Excluded
Opening ourselves in the light of the Universal Apostolic Preferences generates the desire to renew our identity, the call to conversion is an opportunity to approach the Magis in the accompaniment of migrant populations. It is in them that we discover that God summons us, from his clamor, a people walking, integrating, fleeing, looking for a better opportunity to access rights and a dignified life. As a personal and community call to conversion, it is essential to promote the practice of Spiritual Exercises and Discernment as well as how to proceed, nurture our identity and help us care for people. In the preferences there is a confirmation of our work of accompaniment, walking with, sharing the journey, but also reinforce the need to be attentive to the background of the causes of migration, pointing to the necessary change of structures and care of the common home. The violation of environmental rights is one of the first causes of expulsion of people and communities today in all parts of the planet.
They invite us to continue learning from migrants and especially from the young people in whom we maintain the hope of change, the creation of a new hospitality culture. They reinforce the call to articulation, to common projects, to transcend concrete apostolates. The call to conversion is also a call to open ourselves to innovate and be flexible to what the context asks of us. They are therefore a milestone of renewal and impulse, which require greater depth, which do not lead us to a concrete plan, but to put our horizon in the hands of God and allowing the four preferences to penetrate inside and then express themselves in actions out and with others.
Javier Cortegoso (CPAL): Leader
Rampe Hlobo, SJ (JCAM)
Jun Nakai (JCAP)
Joshua Utter (JCCU)
Alberto Ares, SJ (JCEP)
Martin Puthussery, SJ (JCSA)
Action Plan
At this time there is no common action plan in the GIAN Migration. This is precisely an objective to achieve throughout this year 2019. The change of members in the representation of the conferences in the GIAN Migration and the diversity of works, has traditionally limited the joint action of the GIAN to the shared analysis of the different contexts in which one works, and to the realization of some specific actions between two or more conferences. For example, the joint publication led by Comillas University on border situations, or some joint action on the occasion of Refugee Day in 2018 and 2019.
There is a call, especially in the last General Congregation, to harmonize the work we do at the Society of Jesus, both accompanying migrants and refugees and internally displaced persons. Undoubtedly, the complexity of the phenomenon suggests being able to move forward in this regard.
