My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Over last weekend I was in Lisbon, Portugal, at the invitation of the European Caritas Organizations. Caritas Organizations in Europe are those which are similar to our Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services combined. They do both domestic social service and also overseas relief and development work.
Every other year the European Caritas has gathered somewhere in Europe to discuss the issue of migration, which is a very important topic in Europe today. Europe has experienced a population decline and workers have come from all over the world to Europe to fill this labor market gap while, at the same time, presenting new problems of assimilation and integration for the host countries. Caritas Organizations are intimately involved in trying to make the lot of migrants more palatable.
I will also be going to Ireland this November at the invitation of the Irish Bishops Conference to speak to the bishops and those gathered together on the issue of immigrant integration. As you might know, Ireland has experienced a great economic turnaround and Ireland, once was a country of emigration, has now become a country of immigration. That small country of a little over six million people now plays host to 500,000 new immigrants and others. Almost 250,000 are Polish workers, as well as others from Eastern Europe. The Bishops Conference invited me to speak to them of the role the Church plays in integration.
In the Lisbon Migration Conference, I was asked to speak on the topic of migration and development. It is the common wisdom that people migrate because their own countries are underdeveloped and they seek a better economic life in developed countries. While this is true to an extent, it is more complicated in that the individual migration decision is the result of the individual migrant who makes decisions, mostly for the benefit of his family, as to where he can do the best for his family. Many times this means migrating for economic purposes, but also there are those who migrate for other reasons, namely, persecution or lack of freedoms. The European Caritas Organizations were particularly interested in what they could do as development organizations to make the plight of migrants better and also assist countries in development so that people would not have to migrate.
It has been a constant teaching of the Church that a person has the right to remain in one's homeland and enjoy all the possible economic benefits and freedoms available while, at the same time, the Church teaches that everyone has a right to migrate. It has also taught constantly that nations have the right to monitor their borders and select who immigrates into their countries. While these principles might seem in conflict, they make sense when the principle of the common good, which is universally applied to all countries and all people, is taken into account. The cost and benefits of migration must be carefully weighed so that there is an equalization for poor nations for the losses they bear.
When I spoke to the European gathering, it became clear that what the Church has taught about migration and development is not in conflict with the most current thinking regarding assistance to underdeveloped nations. My own experience on the Global Commission for International Migration taught me that most all nations would prefer to keep their migrants at home if they could, and attract them by developing possibilities within their own countries.
One particular problem that is part of the migration phenomenon is the loss of highly skilled and trained citizens from underdeveloped countries to developed countries. This phenomenon has been called the "brain drain." It also has been given other titles, such as "brain strain" and "brain circulation." But I always make the point that I have never seen a brain walk on its own. It is the individual migrants, who make decisions to better their lives, who migrate. There are those who feel that skilled individuals and even unskilled have an obligation to remain in their home countries and would almost keep them prisoner. However, the freedom of movement in the world, especially in an age of globalization, and when new freedoms have been found, make it almost impossible to restrain people making migration decisions. It is really important that highly skilled migrants be assisted in the eventual return, if possible, to their countries so that the skills and experience they have gained in the developed world can help improve their underdeveloped world. Many return migration schemes have been suggested and perhaps, in the near future, we will see them backed by funding and workable programs.
Another aspect of migration and development has focused on remittances of migrants to their home countries. Remittances are those monies sent by individual migrants to their families to sustain them. Only in recent years have financial institutions recognized the tremendous transfer of funds to underdeveloped countries by way of migrant remittances. This is certainly not a new phenomenon and ever since we have experienced migration in the modern world, migrants have always sent money back to the home countries to support relatives and friends.
There are those who feel that this loss of money to the developed world is detrimental. However, when all is said and done, it is truly minimal in the developed world, but a true incentive to develop in the underdeveloped world. Although these gifts of money by migrants are to other individuals for use for basic necessities, there always seems to be a multiplier effect so that the economies of these underdeveloped countries truly do benefit. In some countries, remittances can form a large part of the Gross National Product or, the amount of money generated by an individual economy. This is certainly the case today in Mexico and especially the case in the smaller Central American countries whose economies are weak by comparison to others.
My topic was assigned to bring the Catholic perspective to the issue of migration and development, and by combining Church teaching and what I have learned in my migration experiences, I believe I was able to give some practical suggestions to the European Caritas Organizations of how they can assist development by enhancing the possibility of migrants to contribute to their home country either as individuals or in collective organizations.
As you can see, my passion for understanding migration's root causes and trying to better the lot of migrants is shown at times when I can share what I know with others. I hope this will also assist our own Diocese in understanding the impact of migration here, and how we can assist the home countries of migrants who now call Brooklyn and Queens their home.
As the many bishops from these countries visit, we try to assist them. We are working with the Haitian Apostolate and Catholic Relief Services to develop a program to assist Haiti. I am proposing, in the near future, a mission collection so that we can assist in the development of the churches in the many lands from which our migrants come. Migration, above all, is an exercise in "putting out into the deep." It is my hope that we who inhabit the "other shore" for migrants will welcome them and integrate them as part of our Great Society and our Universal Church.
