the catholic church’s rich understanding of u.s. immigration · 2013-06-03 · poorest countries...

1www.inallthings.org VISIT OUR WEB SITE WINTER 2006–2007 • IN ALL THINGS

Across the globe today—in North America and in southern Africa, in Europe and in east Asia—migration, the movement of

people from one place to another, stirs intense pub-lic controversy. To hear so much alarmist talk about “out of control” migration, one might get the impression that hordes of migrants are banging on the doors of the rich countries. But in reality most people do not move; nor do they want to move. The poorest of the poor hardly move at all.

The United Nations estimated that 191 mil-lion persons migrated in 2005, a figure that repre-sents only 3 percent of the total world population.1 Approximately l54 million are persons who choose to move voluntarily, including students, business professionals, oil workers and even circus people who temporarily change their countries of resi-dence. An even smaller percentage of the global migrant population is forced migrants or refugees. People who decide to immigrate permanently con-stitute a very small minority of the human race.

Why do so few people migrate? Because the act of uprooting oneself has deep physical, psycho-logical, social, economic, religious and linguistic consequences, most people, unless forced to move, prefer to stay at home. Migration is too difficult. It is also too expensive. If poverty were the cause of migration, then the poorest countries of the world would generate the most migrants. In fact, the poorest countries produce the fewest transnation-al migrants. Although integrated world markets, cheaper communication technology and transpor-tation have dramatically reduced the complexity and cost of moving, migration still requires money and networks. The migrant does not have to be rich but he or she rarely comes from the very bottom of the economic ladder.

Economic factors are central to any good analy-sis of migration. The economic gap between rich and poor countries continues to grow and this gap surely motivates migration. A migrant, for example, can earn a dramatically higher wage in the United States than inside Mexico. But to reduce

The Catholic Church’s Rich Understanding of U.S. ImmigrationREV. RICK RYSCAVAGE, S.J.

Fr. Ryscavage (Maryland Province) is the Director of the Center for Faith and Public Life at Fairfield University and

the Director of the Jesuit University Migration Network.

WINTER 2006–2007

continued on page 2

Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla, S.J., a son of immigrants, ministers to a diverse flock in his diocese of Yakima, Washington. Bishop Sevilla states about his work: “My ministry in this small, largely rural and agricultural region of Central Washington tries to move all of us to a peace rooted in the justice that is impossible without forgiveness. It is a great yet grace-filled challenge, given the many societal forces that create and nourish divisiveness.”

KIR

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IRO

TA

US Foreign-Born Population by Region of Birth: 2000

Source: Micah N. Bump, B. Lindsay Lowell, and Silje Petterson, “The Growth and Population Characteristics of Immigrants and Minorities in America’s New Settlement States,” in Elzbieta M. Gozdziak and Susan F. Martin, Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America. Lexington Books, New York: 2005, p26.

MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES

This issue of In All Things considers the Catholic Church as it relates to immigra-tion. Although the question of immigra-

tion reform took the national stage in 2006, the Catholic Church has provided services to and advocacy on behalf of immigrants since early in U.S. history. Indeed, as Richard Ryscavage, S.J., explains, our Church continues to be an immigrant Church. But if America is a country of immigrants, and the Catholic Church a church of immigrants, what is different about the phenomenon today that it has attracted so much attention? And what does today’s immigration suggest about the future?

The current immigration wave is set in a time of swift historical change. Contrary to a history of diverse immigrants in the Church, as explained by James E. Grummer, S.J., a large portion of the current influx of immigrants are linguistically homogenous. This factor and the phenomenon of globalization have enabled immigrant com-munities to become transnational communities, affecting the way they integrate into American society, as discussed by Elzbieta Gozdziak and Erica Dahl-Bredine. Moreover, globalization has created an economic uncertainty amongst the lower-skilled classes in developing and developed countries alike; two Catholics debate how this economic uncertainty affects the immigration question in the U.S. Thirdly, the war on terror has created a climate of fear in the United States,

making it more difficult to respond to the call of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Mexican Episcopal Conference for their flocks to be Strangers No Longer. J. Kevin Appleby’s article explains the immigration policy prescriptions in that pastoral letter.

The uncertainty surrounding this historical change has impacted the U.S. and the Church’s responses to immigration reform. Some local leg-islatures have reacted to undocumented immi-gration by restricting immigrants’ ability to rent homes and receive services.

The Society of Jesus has developed networks of academics and pastors within the U.S. and throughout Latin America to share information and collaborate on immigration efforts; we include some of the voices of participants of these networks in this issue. The Society also actively participates in the Justice for Immigrants campaign established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to educate Catholics about the current migration reality and advocate for reform. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., provides the theological basis for arguments for reform in his article; an Ignatian meditation by Robert Scullin, S.J., follows.

In sum, this issue of In All Things aims to help readers understand the economic, social and cul-tural aspects of the immigration phenomenon in the United States and consider the catholic—uni-versal—call to solidarity and hospitality. ❖

In All Things is published by the United States Jesuit Conference’s Office of Social and International Ministries. The Office of Social and International Ministries advises and assists the Jesuit Conference Board and the Provinces of the Society of Jesus in promoting the domestic and international social mis-sion of the Society by means of: advo-cating public policy; public education; social reflection and analysis; building a network of Jesuit and non-Jesuit indi-viduals and institutions; and supporting persons who are working in the social apostolate, both domestic and interna-tional. Published tri-annually, In All Things aims to project a new paradigm for understanding the social apostolate by highlighting the connection between local and global issues, and between domestic and international justice with-in the context of the Society of Jesus and the social thought of the Catholic Church.

Editor: John Kleiderer Associate Editor: Jill M. Gerschutz Assistant Editor: Julie Bourbon Designer: Eugenia Kim

James R. Stormes, S.J., Secretary of Social and International Ministries

John Kleiderer, Policy Director

Jill M. Gerschutz, Outreach Coordinator and Policy Associate

Anthony Jennings, Administrative Assistant

The articles published here reflect the opinions of the editor or the authors. They are not meant to represent any official positions of the Society of Jesus.

Letters to the Editor must be signed and include the writer’s address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

U.S. Jesuit Conference 1616 P Street, NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20036-1405 PHONE: 202-462-0400

FAX: 202-328-9212 EMAIL: [email protected]://www.inallthings.org

WINTER 2006–2007

From the Office…JILL MARIE GERSCHUTZ

the reasons behind migration to an individual economic choice would be highly misleading. The decision to migrate is so complex that it cannot be understood fully through the lens of one discipline like economics. Sociologists have consistently found that factors such as family unification, physi-cal safety, educational opportu-nities and transnational social networks influence the decision

to emigrate. The dynamics of migration are so complicated that even after decades of study, there is still no general theory of migra-tion that adequately explains why people move.

The relative smallness of the global migrant pool does not de-tract from the fact that in specific countries and regions, migration can have a large social, cultural and economic impact. The dropping

birth rates and aging populations in Europe and Japan mean that immigration may have a profound effect on the future of those soci-eties. The United States, while not in such a dramatic demographic decline, has been experiencing some of the highest levels of legal immigration in its history. Since the 1990s, 700,000 to one mil-lion legal immigrants a year have been entering the United States;

cannot benefit from these entitle-ment programs, this money rep-resents a net contribution to the federal revenues.

Do migrants take jobs from Americans, lower their wages and overburden social services? Most academic studies have concluded that the effect of U.S. immigra-tion, legal and illegal, has been beneficial to the U.S. economy. Immigrants tend to compete with other immigrants, not U.S. citizens, for jobs. Immigrants do not depress the wages of those American citizen workers who have at least a high school edu-cation. There does seem to be a stronger negative effect on the wages of unskilled high school drop-outs, but it is not clear that, in the absence of immigrants, very low grade service and agri-cultural jobs would be filled by these U.S. citizens, even if they were paid a higher wage. Real wages for low-skilled U.S. citi-zen workers have been falling for the past quarter century, and that drop in wages seems quite unre-lated to immigration.6

Despite the generally posi-tive view of immigration pre-sented by academic research, the public perception remains that this elevated level of migration is dangerous. Observers point to the many problems associated with immigration: trespassing on private property, gang violence, criminal smuggling, the produc-tion of counterfeit documents, packed local emergency rooms, public health and environmental issues, chaos at the Mexico–U.S. border, and English-speaking citi-zens who are made to feel like foreigners in their own towns. All of these issues have provoked an anti-immigration backlash and a vigorous and strident public policy debate in the United States about

workers in less-skilled jobs will continue to increase in the next 10 years. Fewer native-born work-ers will be available to fill these jobs because they are growing older and more educated.3 Yet only 5,000 legal visas are avail-able for such jobs annually. The U.S. immigration system does not match the demands of the U.S. labor market. Because there are too few visas available, it is not surprising that close to 12 million people are currently in the coun-try illegally, most of them from Mexico, Central America and China. Large numbers of these undocumented immigrants have been integrated into the labor force, paying income and payroll taxes. Professor Douglas Massey estimated that the undocument-ed have fed $7 billion dollars into Social Security4 and another $1.5 billion into Medicare.5 Since they

most of them are young people in search of work.2 More recent immigrants have started to bypass the traditional immigration cit-ies of New York, Los Angles and Miami in favor of the U.S. inte-rior and high growth regions like Nevada and North Carolina. So the impact of immigration is no longer primarily confined to the east and west coasts.

Immigration in the United States

Although the level of immigration seems high, it is almost impossible to

gain legal entry to the United States unless a person has an employer or family sponsor who is already a legal resident in the country. Even then, the wait for visas can stretch on for years.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the demand for

Timeline of U.S. Immigration History*

1776Catholics comprise only 1% of the colonial population; some are persecuted for their beliefs.

1790Naturalization Rule: Congress establishes two-year residency requirement on white immigrants wishing to become U.S. citizens.

1794Maryland enacts anti-Catholic legislation, targeting work of the Society of Jesus.

1798Alien and Sedition Acts increase residency requirement for U.S. citizenship to 14 years and allow for deportation of “dangerous” aliens; requirement is lowered to 5 years in 1800.

1819Immigration Act requires reporting on immigration numbers by maritime transportation; Adams-Onis Treaty establishes first border with Mexico.

1768: A Bishop on the ship “Hillsborough” is forced away by angry American colonists.

“Every human being has

the right to freedom of

movement and of residence

within the confines of his

own state. When there are

just reasons in favor for it, he

must be permitted to migrate

to other countries and to

take up residence there. The

fact that he is a citizen of

a particular state does not

deprive him of membership

to the human family, nor of

citizenship in the universal

society, the common, world-

wide fellowship of men.”

John Paul II, address to the

New World Congress on the

Pastoral Care of Immigrants,

October, 1985

continued on page 4

*Items in bold indicate legislation passed throughout the years.

2 VISIT OUR WEB SITE www.inallthings.orgIN ALL THINGS • WINTER 2006–2007 www.inallthings.org VISIT OUR WEB SITE WINTER 2006–2007 • IN ALL THINGS 3

Separation of families can often be stressful on migrant parents. These Honduran volunteers and Tom Greene, S.J. (New Orleans Province) discuss ways to facilitate reunification of families where communication has been lost.

REV. W

ILLIAM

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4 IN ALL THINGS • WINTER 2006–2007 VISIT OUR WEB SITE www.inallthings.org 5www.inallthings.org VISIT OUR WEB SITE WINTER 2006–2007 • IN ALL THINGS

both the sending and receiving countries.

In 2006, a separate issue arose because of proposed legis-lation that would have penalized groups, including the Church, that extended housing, food and other services to illegal immi-grants. As Pope Benedict XVI makes clear in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, charitable acts define the basic nature of the Church. She can never accept governmen-tal curtailment of her charity functions. Through his outspo-ken advocacy, Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles seems not only to have generated an outcry against the proposed provision, but also to have shifted the debate to the more general topic of how the humanitarian needs of the undocumented can be met.

It would be a distortion to view the Church as just one of many pro-immigration advocacy groups. While the starting point of analysis for the government as well as many advocacy groups is the law or labor economics, the Church sees the issue of migration primarily through a much richer prism of global history, spiritual-ity, social theory, theology and concrete pastoral experience. Legal categories for classifying migrants—such as economic migrants, undocumented work-

ers, asylum seekers, conven-tion refugees, etc.—while recognized by the Church, are not the primary way that the Church relates to migrants. She does not ask first whether a person is

legal or illegal but rather looks at the migrant as a human person or a human family.

Most of the undocumented people entering the United States are Catholics. With some cultur-al differences, the Church in the United States is organically part of the same Church in Mexico.

recognized the sovereign right of a nation to control its territorial borders and regulate entry. In order to look after the common good, the State has a national security responsibility to protect its citizens. This responsibility may entail strong immigration controls. At the same time, the Church says that human beings have a right to migrate—espe-cially in search of work. The bishops have called for just immi-gration laws that allow generous channels of entry, good work-ing conditions and protection of

the migrant’s dignity and human rights. Strengthening and defend-ing the family has always been a hallmark concern for the Catholic Church. The Church’s insistence that migrant families be allowed to stay together reflects its expe-rience that the separation of fam-ilies generates severe social ills for

border controls and immigration law, including the post-9/11 secu-rity concerns about the entry of foreign terrorists.

The Catholic Church and Immigration

The Catholic Church in the United States has stepped forcefully into this con-

tentious debate. Some leading Catholic bishops and cardinals and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have called for compre-hensive immigration reform while protecting the rights and dignity of immigrants, including undocumented immi-grants. The role of the Catholic Church in the U.S. immigration debate has surprised many peo-ple, but the Church’s position has remained consistent for decades. Drawing on some classic principles of Catholic social thought, the bishops have repeatedly expressed opposition to the breaking of law and the illegal entry of people into a country except for grave reasons of survival. They also have long

global, transcultural perspective on such matters as migration.

Spiritual Roots to the Church’s Immigration Position

Perhaps the main reason the Church’s political reflec-tion on migration seems

exceptional lies in its spiritual roots. Migration was central to the Jewish experience of meet-

ing God. Christianity built on this tradition, and through its notion of “mission” incorporated the idea of encountering God through the move-ment of the Church into the world—never static, always growing through the Church’s own migra-tion. Jesus, an itinerant

preacher himself, specifically iden-tified himself with the migrant. “I

have become the primary source for many families’ economic development. Without migra-tion, there would be much more poverty and social suffering.

Not just in the case of Mex-icans, but globally, the Church’s transnational identity as a faith community demands that its pas-toral care of people transcend political borders. Its pastoral mis-sion can never restrict itself to a

single sovereign state. The Church has always had a universal mission. This gives the Church an unusual

So the Church sees the phenom-enon of migration from both sides of the border. For exam-ple, the Church is fully aware that the remittances—the mon-ies that migrants send home—from Mexican immigrants alone totaled over $18 billion in 2005.7 This money has become the life blood for children and old people in many rural villages, far exceeding any foreign aid or domestic government social assistance. The remittances go directly to the families without passing through some-times corrupt local and national governmental offices. Academics and policy-makers debate whether this money ultimately benefits the common good of the local and national society. But it is clear that remittances from migrants

MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Legal Status of Immigrants in 2004

Source: Jeffrey S. Passel, “Background Briefing Prepared for Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future.” Pew Hispanic Center. June 14, 2005. http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/46.pdf, p. 3.

It would be a distortion to view the Church as just one of many

pro-immigration advocacy groups. …The Church sees the issue of migration

primarily through a much richer prism of global history, spirituality, social theory,

theology and concrete pastoral experience.

1845Potato crop fails in Ireland; 500,000 Irish, many Catholic, immigrate to U.S. in subsequent 5 years.

1860–1914Troubled economy in Poland sparks immigration of 2 million, mainly Catholic, Polish.

1864Congress legalizes importation of contract labor; first “legal aliens.”

1875First Exclusionary Act: Convicts, prostitutes, and Asian contract workers barred entry; Henderson v. Mayor of New York declares all state laws governing immigration unconstitutional.

1880Italy’s troubled economy and political instability leads to massive emigration; 4 million in U.S. by 1930, many of whom are Catholic.

1882Initial effort by Federal Government to regulate immigration. Chinese, ex-convicts, lunatics, and the infirm are excluded from entry.

Chinese Exclusion Act bars Chinese from citizenship and leads to increased recruiting of Mexican migrant workers by railroad companies. Instability in Russia leads to 3 million Russian immigrants by 1912.

The role of the Catholic Church in the U.S. immigration debate has surprised many people, but the Church’s position

has remained consistent for decades.

1855: Anti-Catholic cartoon reflects the nativist perception of the threat posed by the Irish immigration and Catholic education.

1860s: Chinese mining life, from Harper‘s Weekly.1880: Cartoon (from Puck) titled “Welcome to all” shows Uncle Sam on the threshold of the “U.S. Ark of Refuge” welcoming people from a variety of nations.

1882: Harper's Weekly engraving is captioned: “Exiles from Russia—their first day in New York.”

1885Congress bans contract laborers.

continued on page 6

“…the sinfulness of the world,

which Christ came to heal,

reaches in our time a pitch

of intensity through social

structures which exclude the

poor from participation in the

blessings of God’s creation.”

Society of Jesus

General Congregation 34:

Decree 2, n. 9

In 2004, 4.7 million children

were living in families

where at least one parent

was unauthorized.

Jeffrey Passel

Pew Hispanic Center

African immigrant children from Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish in Portland, Maine.

LOR

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ULT


Notes1. “International Migration 2006.” UN Department of Economic

and Social Affairs Population Division. October 2006. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/2006Migration_Chart/2006IttMig_wallchart.xls

2. Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics. Annual Flow Report: 2005.

3. Roger Moncarz and Olivia Crosby, “Job outlook for people who don’t have a bachelor’s degree,” Occupational Outlook Quarterly 48(4), Winter, 2005.

4. Douglas S. Massey, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand & Humberto Gonzalez, Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International

Migration from Western Mexico. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.

5. Douglas S. Massey & Kristin E. Espinosa, “What’s Driving Mexico–U.S. Migration? A Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Analysis,” American Journal of Sociology 102:939-999, 1997.

6. Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny, “Does Immigration Affect Wages?” Reserve Bank of Dallas Research Department, Working Paper 0302, August 2003.

7. International Migration and Development: The Americas. Presskit. United Nations Department of Public Information: 2006. http://www.un.org/migration/presskit/factsheet_america.pdf.

was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). Even at the per-sonal level of individual spiritual-ity, St. Augustine among other Christian teachers emphasized that we should all view ourselves as resident aliens in this world, pilgrims on a journey home to the City of God which is our true citizenship and homeland.

This spiritual perspective on human migration gives the Church some unusu-al insights into the immi-grant reality. The Church understands that the impulse to migrate goes far beyond an economic choice. Emigration can represent a family’s long-ing for a happier life in a better place. It is a long-ing that, though it may turn a person’s world upside down, can never fully satisfy in this life. Something is always lost in migra-tion. Sometimes even the faith in God is lost. But it is not unusual for a person to discover God in the process of migration. The act of uprooting oneself or being uprooted tends to concentrate the mind on the true priorities of life, including our dependence on God.

The Church understands that of all the needs of the human spir-it, the need for roots is one of the most important. The concept of “home” seems simple at first, but what does it mean? Home is never truly understood until one leaves

home and then feels the uproot-edness of not being in a place of one’s own. Migration is never a casual life choice. It almost always entails an experiential crisis. So the Church places great empha-sis on welcoming the stranger, hospitality and the importance of social integration, the gradual laying down of new roots in a new homeland. This understand-

ing was the primary reason why the Church in the United States allowed or encouraged the devel-opment of ethnic parishes and Catholic school systems. Many Jesuit universities in the United States, including Fordham and Boston College, were founded for immigrants. All of these institu-tions acted as mediating struc-tures; over a series of generations they helped integrate immigrants into American society. Even today the Church sponsors an unrivaled network of refugee resettlement, social service, legal and pastoral care programs for migrants.

The Church for centuries has witnessed the gifts that immigrants bring to enrich the host culture

and how they enrich the common good of society. In the case of the United States, these gifts have included bringing a stronger sense of family and community, respect for the elderly, emphasis on the moral education of youth, fresh expressions of piety and spiritual-ity, and new traditions of food and music. These immigrant con-tributions have kept the United

States youthful, creative, ever-changing and reflec-tive of the global human family.

So based on its long experience, the Church has a far more sophisticated and complex understand-ing of the phenomenon of migration than the gov-ernment which naturally

concerns itself with the pragmatic civic questions of border con-trol, labor economics and social integration. The Church’s per-spective truly complements the perspective of government and that of more legally oriented civil society organizations. The cur-rent social debate on immigration tends to be coarse and polarizing. But one can envision a differ-ent kind of public dialogue in which the centuries-deep wisdom of the Church can help humanize and balance the hard exigencies of government law and policies, where the United States can reclaim its identity as the great-est society of immigrants in the world. ❖

1891Precursor to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) established to oversee naturalization process.

1892–1954Ellis Island opens and receives 12 million immigrants.

1903Epileptics and anarchists denied entry to the U.S.

1906Procedural criteria enacted for naturalization: knowledge of English language becomes a prerequisite. Catholics become the largest religious denomination in the U.S.; 17% of the population.

1907Tuburculars and children under 16 without parents barred entry. Gentleman’s agreement between Japan and U.S. bars Japanese immigration to America.

1910Mexican Revolution begins; thousands of Catholics flee to U.S.

1887: “Welcome to the land of freedom” engraving shows immigrants on deck of the steamer “Germanic.” From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. 1902: The final discharge gate at Ellis Island.

1902: Detention pen on the roof of the main building of Ellis Island holds emigrés waiting for deportation.

1911: Insurgents aiming rifles from a mountain during the Mexican Revolution.

1911Senate Commission identifies Mexican immigrants as solution to Southwest labor shortage in 42 volume-report.

1917Literacy test established as requirement for migration.

Migration: A View from the SouthERICA DAHL-BREDINE

Migration is dramatically changing the face of communities across

Mexico and Central America as well as in the United States. While some of its impacts are clearly positive, migration cannot continue to be the escape valve for countries that are unable to provide for their people at home.

In much of Mexico and Central America, migration is rapidly becoming an integral part of daily life. A substan-tial number of households in the region have at least one fam-ily member living in the United States; many are receiving remit-tances from that family member to help them get by. For young people entering the job market, struggling farmers, and laid-off factory workers, migrating north is often one of the few options available.

Social Costs and Benefits

The social cost of migra-tion on families and the communities left behind

is particularly high. While many migrants leave with the intent to return home within a year or so, often that period is extend-ed indefinitely. Young children grow up without knowing one or even both parents; the strain on the spouses and grandparents left behind to care for the chil-dren is often very great. In many rural communities, agricultural production has suffered, as most of the able-bodied young people have migrated north. Economic inequality within many com-munities has become more pro-nounced, as those households

benefiting from regular remit-tances become much more pros-perous than the rest.

In some cases, the changes to traditional community struc-tures and cultural traditions have positive and dramatic impacts on communities. In many rural

communities, women for the first time have opportunities to move into positions of leadership to fill the void left by the men who have migrated. New trans-national migrant networks have emerged, with the ability to chan-nel important financial resources to their local governments back home and exercise influence over policy decisions in their home communities and countries.

Migration and Development

Migration is clearly a sign of the times, a mani-festation of an eco-

nomic model that in many ways is failing the poor, and increas-ingly the middle class in much of Latin America. The free market oriented economic reforms, often referred to as the Washington Consensus, have not resulted in improved standards of living for the majority of the population in Latin America. Instead, it is now the most unequal region in the world.

In Mexico, the shift to an economic model based on cheap

labor and exports of agricultural and assembled goods has been accompanied by increased inequal-ity, a dramatic drop in purchasing power, and continued poverty rates of approximately 50 percent of the population. Opening its borders to increased competition

from imports under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, has been devastating for Mexico’s small farmers and its small and medium-sized business sector. With the recent pas-sage of CAFTA, the Central

American Free Trade Agreement, many are concerned that a similar displacement of Central American small farmers and businesses will occur.

As the United Nations Devel-opment Program (UNDP) points out in its 2005 World Develop-ment Report, however, if done right, economic globalization can translate into higher levels of hu-man development. In a case study comparing the globalization sto-ries of Mexico and Vietnam, the UNDP highlights Vietnam’s commitment to broad-based in-clusive growth and a gradual lib-eralization of trade as the factors which led to a dramatic reduction in poverty levels and child mor-tality, among other human devel-opment indicators.

Unlike other economic inte-gration models, NAFTA did not consider the existing disparities between Mexico and the United States. The European Union, for example, provided development funding for its poorer member countries prior to including them in the trading block. This was

Ms. Dahl-Bredine is the Mexico Country Program Manager

for Catholic Relief Services.

“Catholic teaching also

states that the root causes

of migration—poverty,

injustice, religious

intolerance, and armed

conflicts—must be

addressed so that migrants

can remain in their

homeland and support their

families.”

Strangers No Longer

Joint Pastoral Letter of U.S.

and Mexican Bishops

As Catholic Social Teaching affirms, people have not only the right to migrate, but also

the right not to migrate.

continued on page 8

MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES

St. Augustine among other Christian teachers emphasized that we should

all view ourselves as resident aliens in this world, pilgrims on a journey home

to the City of God which is our true citizenship and homeland.

“New immigrants call most

of us back to our ancestral

heritage as descendants

of immigrants and to our

baptismal heritage as

members of the body of

Christ.”

Welcoming the Stranger

Among Us, U.S. Bishops’

Pastoral Letter


INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

1921Quota Act establishes cap and nationality quota system to limit immigration. Cap of 350,000 immigrants per year established.

1924Border Patrol established. 89,000 Mexicans migrate to U.S. on permanent visas.

1927Immigration cap lowered to 150,000: 70% reserved for Northern Europeans, 30% for Southern Europeans.

1943Basis for what would come to be known as the Bracero program established to bring temporary agricultural laborers from Latin America.

1952McCarran-Walter Act consolidates earlier immigration laws and eliminates race as consideration in immigration and naturalization; introduces political ideology as disqualifying factor in application process; limits Asian immigration to 100 people per country, while devoting 85% of ceiling to Northern and Western Europe.

1919: Educational poster.

1938: Mexican women at the U.S. immigration station in El Paso, Texas.

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1948Displaced Person’s Act allows entry to 400,000 immigrants displaced by WWII after a security check; technical aspects discriminated against Catholics and Jews.

1943: Naturalized citizens attending an “I am an American” day rally at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.

Pope Pius XII issues Exsul Familia (Families in Exile), the “Magna Carta for Migrants;” calls the Holy Family of Nazareth fleeing into Egypt the “archetype of every refugee family;” and establishes a right to migrate.1937: Mexican laborer in California

earning 30¢ an hour.

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1950s .

done to establish a more level playing field in the region and to reduce the possibility of wide-spread displacement of workers and farmers in the poorer coun-tries, which is what has occurred in Mexico.

U.S. Labor Demands

Other factors have also been instrumental in shaping the current

immigration reality. Since the late 1800s, U.S. employers have been recruiting workers from Mexico to fuel the growth of industries that are vital to the U.S. economy. During World War I, the federal government established a worker recruitment program to respond to labor shortages; it did so again in 1942, in response to the labor

needs created by World War II. A century of these immigra-

tion patterns has created deeply rooted family and social networks that have continued to attract more migrants from Mexico over the years. This dynamic has taken on a life of its own and cannot simply be stopped, nor is it ulti-mately in the United States’ own best interest to do so.

A Catholic Response

As Catholic Social Teach-ing affirms, people have not only the right to

migrate, but also the right not to migrate. All people have the right to opportunities in their homeland that allow them to work and support their families in dignity. Given the increas-

ing interdependence of national economies, we cannot simply argue that the south is exporting its poverty to the United States and should solve its own prob-lems. The responsibility for deal-ing with the increased flows of migrants to the United States, a reality borne out of our more globalized world economy, must be shared by U.S. and Latin American governments alike.

We must work together to promote broad-based develop-ment in the region so as to give would-be migrants the option of living in dignity in their home communities and with their fam-ilies. This will only enhance the security and wellbeing of all our communities, in both the south and the north. ❖

Rev. Josep Buades Fuster, S.J. (Aragon Province) celebrates mass with members of the Jesuit Migration Service of Central America and North America at Centro Loyola, San Salvador.

REV. W

ILLIAM

RIC

KLE, S.J.

Receiving Immigrants: New Challenges for the ChurchELZBIETA M. GOZDZIAK

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and

you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me… (Mt 25:35)

Religion and spirituality sustain many migrants.

Religious and spiritual beliefs and practices are a source of emotional and cognitive sup-port, a form of social and political expression and mobilization, and a vehicle of community build-ing and group identity. Timothy L. Smith, a historian of religion, called migration a “theologizing experience,” an event that urges individuals to find meaning in

their lives. Indeed, changes of loca-tion and social milieu can unsettle our self-conception at the most fundamental level. Removed from the social roles and constraints of their places of origin, newcomers need an anchor—networks and institutions. And so they often look to religion to ground and guide them in an alienating cul-tural landscape.

In his book What It Means to Be an American, Michael Walzer

reminds us that Americans first acquire political competence within their ethnic, cultural and religious associations. In their religious associations, newcom-ers not only negotiate differences with one another, they also inevi-tably encounter people of different religious backgrounds, particular-ly those of the host society. Places of worship have had a long his-tory of facilitating integration of

“At St. Mary of the Angels

in Boston, Pentecost was

one of our favorite feasts.

Parishioners who had

emigrated from more than

30 countries would dress

in their traditional garb,

share traditional food, and

participate in a multi-lingual

liturgy. Our immigrant

friends reawakened in us

the depth of the Pentecost

experience.”

Rev. Jack Fagan, S.J., President

of the Jesuit Hispanic Ministry

Conference

Ms. Gozdziak is Director of Research at the Institute for the Study of International

Migration, Georgetown University.

continued on page 10

Two young children enjoy a meal prepared at the Sagrado Corazón restaurant that operates out of the Jesuit border parish of the same name. Profits from the restaurant help fund services to migrants.

MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES

“Part of the process of

conversion of mind and

heart deals with confronting

attitudes of cultural

superiority, indifference, and

racism: accepting migrants

not as foreboding aliens,

terrorists, or economic

threats, but rather as persons

with dignity and rights,

revealing the presence of

Christ; and recognizing

migrants as bearers of deep

cultural values and rich faith

traditions.”

Strangers No Longer


and Mexican Bishops


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Percent Growth of U.S. Immigrant Population, 1990–2000

NOTE: This map shows the percentage increase in the immigrant population between 1990–2000, a decade of record growth in 19 “new immigrant” states. The increase in absolute numbers in those states ranges from 22,623 in Delaware to 404,147 in Georgia.

Source: Bump, et al, Gozdziak, p. 24; supra p. 3.

INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

1954Operation Wetback: INS arrests and repatriates as many as 1.3 million undocumented immigrants.

1959Cuban revolution leads to over 1 million Cuban immigrants over 10 years; many are Catholic.

1964Bracero program allowed to expire; first U.S. maquiladoras (foreign-owned factories which operate without tariffs/customs) established in Mexico along U.S. border.

1965Hart-Celler Act abolishes nationality quotas, establishes separate ceilings for eastern (170,000) and western (120,000) hemispheres. Family-preference system established, along with preference for refugees and artisans.

1972U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sponsors the first Encuentro Nacional Hispano de Pastoral, a major meeting of Hispanic Catholics.

1978Total immigration ceiling set at 290,000.

1980Refugee Act removes refugees as category of preference and establishes a separate ceiling for determining annual number, to be determined by the president; lowers ceiling on traditional immigration to 270,000.

1986Immigration Reform and Control Act raises annual immigration cap to 540,000. Amnesty is offered to those illegal aliens able to prove continuous residence in the United States as of 1982. Stiff sanctions are introduced for employers of illegal aliens.

1990Immigration Act further raises annual immigration ceiling to 700,000 annually from ’92–‘94; then to 675,000 annually. Ten thousand permanent resident visas are offered to those immigrants agreeing to invest at least $1 million in U.S. urban areas or $500,000 in U.S. rural areas.

The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 is amended to strike denial of admittance to the United States on the basis of beliefs, statements, or associations.

“Many migrants, sensing

rejection or indifference from

Catholic communities, have

sought solace outside the

Church. They experience the

sad fate of Jesus, recorded in

St. John’s Gospel: “He came

to what was his won, but his

own people did not accept

him” (Jn 1:11). The need

to provide hospitality and

create a sense of belonging

pertains to the Church on

every level.”

Strangers No Longer


and Mexican Bishops

Latino Religious Affiliation in the U.S.

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the positive potential of religion and the local Catholic Church in Park City, Utah, on Latino new-comers there.

Some 2,500 Latino immi-grants, mostly from Mexico, attend St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Park City, Utah. A turning point in the history of the parish came with the arrival of the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commissioned by a local Mexican couple for the new parish church. Fr. Robert Bussen, pastor of St. Mary’s, remembers showing the gift to congregants who attended the English Mass. They nodded and pronounced it “beautiful.” However, when he unveiled the large, gilded icon to his Latino congregation, they fell to their knees and started praying. The Latino dedication ceremony of the new church included a four-mile procession with community

percentage of Latino Protestants has increased from 15 percent in the first generation to 29 percent in the third generation.4 “These findings are consistent with the work of Andrew Greeley who noted [in 1998] that one out of seven Hispanics had left the Catholic Church in less than a quarter of a century.”5

What contributes to the increasing “Pentecostalization” of the Latino population? Some stress aggressive proselytizing, intense worship experiences (speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and divinely inspired prophecies) as well as an emphasis on youth ministry and popular culture as an important draw to Latino Protestant churches. Others point out tangible assistance provided by Protestant churches; Protestant evangelicals are twice as likely as Catholics to say that their church helped them get a job, provided money, housing, food or cloth-ing. Still others emphasize the lack of a strict hierarchy in some Pentecostal denominations, allow-ing for more leadership opportu-nities, including opportunities for women in the ordained as well as lay ministries.

What Next?

The rapid increase of immi-grants from Latin America to the United States has

the potential to infuse new spirit and new energy into the Church. As Catholics, we must be ready to embrace this opportunity to inte-grate newcomers into the Catholic Church. Given her own experi-ence as an immigrant Church in the United States, the Catholic Church and we, its members, should feel compelled to raise our voices on behalf of immigrants, to welcome them into our spiritual and physical home and to fight the prevailing hostility towards immigrants. ❖

newcomers into the mainstream society. Churches, synagogues, temples and mosques can be especially effective organizers of interaction among diverse groups. Places of worship typify the insti-tutional combination of resources and shared values around which newcomers and members of the host society meet for common projects.1

The role of religious institu-tions is of particular import in new settlement areas. In the last 15 years, record numbers of immi-grants have entered the United States and have settled in non-traditional geographical com-munities, including rural towns, suburbs, and smaller metropolitan areas. Recent immigrants, many of whom are Latino and Asian, struggle no less than their prede-cessors with integration and the question of how to preserve their ethnic, cultural and religious iden-

tity. Some argue that the modern phenomena of multiculturalism and transnational communities diminish incentives to partici-pate in their new communities, but many immigrants today still confront the tension between defending the old and embracing the new. In new settlement areas with little previous exposure to immigrants, immigrant integra-tion also demands the attention of the host society, which must strike a balance between engag-ing newcomers and developing tolerance of differences.

The Role of the Catholic Church in Immigrant Integration

In the late 1980s, the Catholic Church released The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic

Ministry, which emphasized cul-tural pluralism and integration

of Latino Catholics into the Catholic Church in a way that supported their faith traditions. An increased number of Masses in Spanish followed. The Church also encouraged the spread of apostolic movements featuring small-group worship and music to create Latino communities within larger parishes. These efforts paid off in many gateway cities with large number of Latino immi-grants; however, they were not necessarily shared or understood in archdioceses that had no recent history of Latino immigration. Alejandro Aguilera-Titus of the Secretariat of Hispanic Affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops remarked in a newspaper interview that Pentecostal groups were reaching out to Latino immigrants and “were being missionary. The Catholic Church was not doing that as intention-ally as it needed to.”2 Consider

members carrying the icon down Park City’s Main Street. To this day, the icon draws a steady flow of worshipers. A multitude of flowers and candles attests to its importance for the local Latino Catholics. The icon is both a reli-gious as well as a national symbol; it is a sacred image that unites Mexicans and offers comfort and a sense of belonging.

Latino Catholics Joining Protestant Churches

The association between Latinos and Catholicism is so strong that it belies a sur-

prising fact: “there are 10 million (30 percent) Latino non-Catholics in the United States today.”3 In fact, the percentage of Latinos who are Catholics has decreased from 74 percent in the first gen-eration to 62 percent by the third generation. Concurrently, the

Source: Espinoza, Gastón, Virilio Elizondo, and Jesse Miranda. “Hispanic Churches in American Public Life: Summary of Findings.” Interim Reports Vol. 2003.2 (January 2003) Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame, 14.

Notes1. This paragraph excerpted from Elzbieta

M. Gozdziak and Susan F. Martin, Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America, Lexington Books, New York: 2005, p. 264.

2. Sonya Geis. “Latino Catholics Increasingly Drawn to Pentecostalism.” Washington Post. April 30, 2006, A03.

3. Gastón Espinoza, Virilio Elizondo, and Jesse Miranda. “Hispanic Churches in American Public Life: Summary of Findings.” Interim Reports Vol. 2003.2 (January 2003). Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame, p. 15.

4. Ibid.5. Ibid.

“By responding with

compassion and solidarity

to the immigrants of

today, we embrace an

opportunity to come to

know and appreciate the

many ways that God is

present in our world.”

John McGarry S.J., Provincial

of the California Province of

the Society of Jesus, January

2006 Letter to the California

Province


The Catholic Labor Schools were launched in the late 1930-40s in the urban industrial north, where a large wave of

European immigrants had settled earlier in the century. The labor schools were spurred by four major forces: the hardship of the Depression, which brought poverty and social confusion; the rise of Communism in mainstream America; the emergence of the new CIO1 branch of the labor movement, with its focus on manufactur-ing industries; and the pressures of the Papal Social Encyclicals of 1931 and 1936 calling on the Church to become more active and visible in public life.

At least 20 of the Labor schools were run by Jesuits, and most of them were tied to Jesuit col-leges or universities scattered across the north-ern half of the country. Some of these centers were among the very first labor schools in the nation, including St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia and Xavier in New York City. In addition to contributing a certain intellectual rigor to the centers, Jesuits brought scholars into direct con-tact with workers.

Although the archival records show little explicit reference to servicing the specific immi-grant populace, a review of the standard Labor School curriculum and brief reflections on the general setting and dynamics of the times reveals that this Church initiative was remarkably well suited to meet the needs of the immigrant com-munity. Such courses as public speaking and negotiations addressed the need to become more skilled and more comfortable with their new English language. The courses in law and the social teaching of the Church gave immigrants greater conviction about their legal and moral right to be treated fairly, to equitably share in the fruits of their labor, and to become involved in the union movement. Most of the over 150 schools were located on local parish property, a setting ideal for often fearful and suspicious immigrants, and were taught by clergy and semi-narians. ❖1 The CIO is the Congress of Industrial Organizations; it merged

in 1955 with the American Federation of Labor, becoming the AFL-CIO.

Labor Schools and the Immigrant CommunityREV. EDWARD F. BOYLE, S.J.

Fr. Boyle (New England Province) is the Chaplain and Executive Secretary of the Boston Archdiocesan Labor Guild.

While such rhetoric hardly endeared “Dagger John” to his opponents, it effectively encour-aged civil authorities to take more seriously their responsibility for public order, thereby preventing some of the most violent opposi-tion to immigrants. However, the impact of nativist fury at Catholics had long-lasting impact on the development of the Church in the United States, especially in two areas. Vivid memories of how they had been treated by some prompted Catholics to develop a strong network of independent Catholic institutions, especially schools and hospitals, resulting in a mentality that later generations condemned as arrogantly paro-chial. At the same time, Catholics strove mightily to prove their loy-alty to their adopted homeland by jettisoning as quickly as pos-sible cultural baggage such as lan-guage or customs. Thus, on April 8, 1917, the Sunday after the United States entered World War I, Archbishop Sebastian Messmer of Milwaukee informed the faith-ful that from that day forward, all sermons would only be in English, “For we are Americans.”

The Jesuits and Immigrant Education

The Society of Jesus partici-pated in both institution-building and assimilation,

especially between 1860 and 1920, when the population of foreign-born Americans never dropped below 13.2 percent, rising as high as 14.8 percent in 1890.1 High schools, parishes, labor schools and retreat houses were only some of the institutions established to keep immigrants Catholic while also helping them become Catholic in an American way. Unfortunately, energy directed to maintaining the faith of waves of immigrants was unavailable for outreach to Native American and African American communities, in spite of initial plans and dreams.

High schools from Regis in Manhattan to Creighton in Omaha to St. Ignatius in San Francisco were established so that immigrants and the sons of immigrants could receive a quality education within a safely Catholic atmosphere. St. Ignatius in Cleveland was only one of a string of high schools stretch-ing from Buffalo, New York to Mankato, Minnesota founded by German Jesuits who had been banished from their homeland during Bismarck’s Kulturkampf against the Church. At Jesuit high schools, students from diverse ethnic neighborhoods were assimilated into a unique form of Catholicism that was heavily influenced by the devotional rev-olution of the 19th century, par-ticularly reverence for a papacy threatened by liberal European governments. In the process, the rich ethnic traditions of immi-grant Catholicism were down-played; the emphasis was now on being American Catholics who were more and more comfortable in their more and more prosper-ous surroundings.

This process of assimilation was further promoted as Jesuit high schools developed col-lege divisions, which eventually became universities. The GI Bill after World War II enabled many returning veterans to be the first of their families to attend college. By the time of John F. Kennedy’s election to the presidency and the convening of the Second Vatican Council, Catholics were well on their way to becoming the largest and wealthiest Christian group in the United States. Catholic insti-tutions of all sorts, but especially schools, had made this amazing transformation possible. At the same time, memories of the nativ-ist attacks that had led to the for-

mation of a justifiably defensive American Catholic culture had faded along with memories of the immigrant experience itself.

The “New Immigration”

In the past generation, the so-called New Immigration has further changed the face of

the United States and the Catholic Church. In the 35 years since the census of 1970, the percentage of foreign-born residents rose from 4.7 percent (the lowest since the Census Bureau began keeping this statistic) to 12.4 percent (the highest since 1920).2 Mexicans, Salvadorans, Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, and Vietnamese are only some of those who have par-ticipated in the double process of becoming Americans and becom-ing American Catholics. As has happened before, immigration reform and discussions of what it means to be an American abound. In that context, it might be help-ful for each of us to review the relevant entries of the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups so that in remembering where we come from we might more easily recognize the path to follow.

Although the New Immi-grants may not have endured the same ferocity of opposition expe-rienced by Archbishop Hughes’s flock, neither have they experi-enced the all-encompassing atten-tion the Church and the Society of Jesus devoted to immigrants a cen-tury earlier. The need to nurture the faith of both foreign-born and native-born Americans is complex, challenging, and ever changing. Now more than ever it is important to remember the contemporary rel-evance of Deuteronomy 10:19: “So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” ❖

INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

1994North American Free Trade Agreement liberalizes trade in North America and generates massive increase in the U.S. southern border population.

1996Immigration Act: Congress votes to double the U.S. Border Patrol to 10,000 agents over five years and mandates the construction of fences at the most heavily trafficked areas of the U.S.–Mexico border. Congress also approves a pilot program to verify the immigration status of job applicants.

1996Welfare Reform Bill cuts many social programs for immigrants: legal immigrants denied food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. Undocumented immigrants made ineligible for virtually all federal and state benefits except emergency medical care, immunization programs, and disaster relief.

1998–2006[Fiscal years] 3,137 bodies of would-be immigrants found in the desert, trying to cross the U.S. border.

2001U.S. Patriot Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportable due to terrorist activities.

2002Homeland Security Act merges Immigration and Naturalization Service into Department of Homeland Security; creating three replacement bureaus: Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

To Be American, To Be an American Catholic REV. JAMES GRUMMER, S.J.

Concerns about U.S. immi-gration policy as well as what it means to be a citi-

zen of the United States seem to rise and fall with the percentage of the population born outside the country. Because a significant portion of the foreign-born pop-ulation of the U.S. has often been largely from Catholic regions of the world, the Church in the United States has had a unique voice and perspective in immigra-tion policy and what it means to be an American.

Before the late 1840s, the two topics were hardly mentioned at all, but global political and eco-nomic conditions in the decade

between 1845 and 1855 released a flood of migrants. As conservative governments throughout Europe (especially in German-speaking areas) reestablished control after the pro-democratic revolutions of 1848, political refugees entered the U.S. in significant numbers. Even larger numbers of economically destitute migrants fled the rav-ages of famines resulting from the failure of potato crops in Ireland and some German principalities, which were largely Catholic.

In response, anti-immigrant sentiment became a dominant force in U.S. politics, even as the economic benefit of inexpen-sive labor fueled the expansion

of nascent American industries. Rioters in Boston, Cincinnati and Milwaukee attacked convents and other institutions that visibly manifested the changing face of America. The backlash against immigrants, especially those of Catholic origin, was strong and virulent throughout the 1850s. When church burnings spread along the Eastern seaboard, Archbishop John Hughes of New York famously remarked that the day a single parish in his city expe-rienced the arson recently perpe-trated in Philadelphia, the most important seaport in the United States would look like Moscow on the day Napoleon retreated.

“In order to accompany and

fulfill the imperative of

solidarity with the sojourner,

academics in Jesuit

institutions cross boundaries

between scholarship and

activism, research and

policy.”

Lois Ann Lorentzen, PhD,

Professor of Social Ethics

and Associate Director of the

Center for Latino Studies in the

Americas, University of San

Francisco; Steering Committee

of Jesuit University Migration

Network

Fr. Grummer (Wisconsin Province) is the Regional Assistant and General

Counselor for the U.S. Assistancy at the Jesuit Curia in Rome.

2005Real ID Act passed by Congress, creating a national driver’s license and ID, including a two-tiered license system for foreigners and U.S. citizens; bans issuance of regular driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

“The Church wants to be

there where the migrants

are, to share with them the

joys and the hopes, as well

as the grief and the pains of

migration.”

People on the Move, n. 5

Cardinal Stephen Hamao,

President of the Pontifical

Council for the Pastoral Care of

Migrants and Itinerant People,

April 2005

Notes1. “Nativity of the Population and Place of Birth of the Native Population: 1850 to 1990.”

U.S. Bureau of the Census. Internet release date: March 9, 1999. 2. See U.S. Census Bureau news release, August 15, 2006.

15www.inallthings.org VISIT OUR WEB SITE WINTER 2006–2007 • IN ALL THINGSIN ALL THINGS • WINTER 2006–200714

U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE? U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?

2006Nearly 1 million people march in over 30 cities across the United States protesting a House bill (HR 4437) proposing to criminalize undocumented immigrants in the United States. Border Fence Act passed by Congress calls for 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000 mile southern U.S. border.

Catholics comprise 23% of the U.S. population.

SOURCES

Photos pp. 3–9 (except 1950s family), Library of Congress; pp. 10–14 iStockphoto.com.

Bach, Robert. “Immigration and U.S. Foreign Policy in Latin America and the Carribean,” Immigration and U.S. Foreign Policy, Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.

Center for Immigration StudiesCloseup Foundation: U.S.–American

ImmigrationDepartment of Homeland Security

Handbook of Texas OnlineImmigration, Catholicism, and

America. USA Today. 20 Aug. 2006.Library of CongressMassey, Douglas. Durand, Jorge.

Malone, Nolan. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors. New York, Russell Sage Foundation: 2002.

National Immigration ForumTeaching American History: The Flow

of HistoryThe Official Catholic Directory

2006: Los Angeles demonstration of a “Day Without Immigrants.”

Migrants come to the United States looking for opportunities to work. They do so because the United States

is blessed with a unique combination of policies, laws, culture and privileges that facilitates enor-mous opportunities for economic development and personal wealth creation.

Conversely, many countries, particularly those south of the U.S. border, do not have the economic infrastructure, politics or the gov-ernance to facilitate or sustain the creation of wealth, to promote opportunities for fair wages, or to treat the person as a recipient of the earn-ings of good work. These countries have given rise to economic conditions requiring citizens to search for a better way of life.

Businessmen and policy makers alike must do their best to consider what Pope John Paul II deemed “…the dramatic situation of the modern world, under the aspect of the failed develop-ment of the Third World, and…, the meaning of, condition and requirements for a development worthy of man.”1 With respect to immigration, businesses have a responsibility to turn “immi-gration [into] a resource for development rather than an obstacle to it.”2

The Dignity of Work

The concept of “the dignity of work” con-fers important responsibilities upon busi-ness. As a businessman, I have several

responsibilities: to operate my business ethically, effectively and profitably, among other goals. As a Catholic businessman, I am further concerned with protecting the dignity of the worker, creat-ing an environment for fair pay and ensuring that my employees can optimize their talents to better not only themselves, but to better serve

our clients. In order to be profitable, Catholic busi-ness people must strive to drive value, to expand into new markets, to outflank and out hustle our competition and to create new service offerings, all while honoring the dignity of work and workers.

What the Catholic Church Is Missing: Care for the Poor at Home FirstSTEVEN A. CAMAROTA

between 2000 and 2005; at the same time, the number of adult immigrants (legal and illegal) with the same level of education grew by 1.6 million. Of perhaps greatest concern, the percentage of adult natives without a high school degree who are in the labor force fell from 59 to 56 percent between 2000 and 2005; for natives with only a high school degree, that number fell from 78 to 75 percent.1

Wages for less-educated native-born workers have stagnated or declined in recent years, as has the share of benefits offered, such as health care, by their employers. It’s just basic economics: increase the supply of something, in this case less-educated workers, and you reduce its price. And the price of labor is wages and benefits.

The Church, unwittingly, has become an ally of the Chamber of Commerce and others in the business community in their efforts to flood the bottom of the labor market and keep wages and benefits down. Such a position rejects the idea of concentric circles of obligation—I have greater obligation to my own children than I do to your family; I have a greater obligation to my commu-nity than I do those outside of the community; and I have greater obligation to my fellow low-income Americans than I do the poor in other countries who want to come here. This does not mean that we have no obligation to people in other coun-tries nor does it mean that we have no obligation to undocumented immigrants. But any discussion that focuses only on the undocumented immi-grants and their moral worth, with virtually no regard to the impact on poor Americans, cannot produce a moral policy.

Undocumented immigrants don’t just harm the low-income natives through job competition. The arrival of large numbers of immigrants with little education strains social services. Undocumented immigrants account for an estimated one-third to one-half of the growth in the uninsured popula-tion in the last 15 years. Public hospitals that serve low-income populations are closing throughout

the country because of the costs of treating the uninsured, often leaving those without insurance with few alternatives. The reason undocu-mented immigrants are uninsured is not their legal status; legal immi-

grants with little education often don’t have insur-ance either. Because of the limited value of their labor in the modern American economy, persons with little education mostly work at jobs that don’t provide health care. And their low incomes mean

“Work is an essential

expression of the person[;]

Any form of materialism or

economic tenet that tries

to reduce the worker to

being a mere instrument of

production…would end up

hopelessly distorting the

essence of work and stripping

it of its most noble and basic

human finality.”

Compendium on Catholic

Social Teaching, n. 271

Mr. Alvarado is a child of immigrant parents, a former Customs and

Border Patrol Agent, and currently Managing Director of Bearingpoint, Inc., management and technology consultants.

Practicing Catholic Social Teaching Is Also Smart BusinessLAURANCE O. ALVARADO

“Work is the ‘essential key’ to the whole social question and is the condition not only for economic development but also for the cultural and moral development of persons, the family, society and the entire human race.”

—Compendium on Catholic Social Teaching, n. 269.

5,000 Number of visas for low-skilled, year-

round workers available annually;

66,000 Number of agricultural visas for temporary workers available annually.1

500,000 Approximate number of additional low-skilled workers entering the US without visas annually since 1990.2

56 million Number of new jobs the U.S. economy is expected to create between 2002–2012, half of which will require no more than a high school education.

75 million Number of baby boomers who will retire between 2002–2012.

10 Percentage of American men who drop out of high school to look for unskilled work; 50% did so in 1960.3

U.S. Immigration and Economics:

1 National Immigration Forum.2 Jeffrey S. Passel, “Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics:

Background Briefing Prepared for Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future.” Pew Hispanic Center. June 14, 2005, p16. www.pewhispanic.org.

3 Tamar Jacoby, “Immigration Nation” Foreign Affairs 85(6). Council on Foreign Relations, New York: 2006,p 52.

EMPLOYMENT

$700 billion or 5.4% of GDP

Estimated contribution of immigrants to the US economy.4

$40 billion Amount of remittances sent by immigrants to Latin American home countries from the United States in 2005.5

$61 million Service costs for immigrants to the state of North Carolina.

$9 billion Consumer spending among immigrants in the state of North Carolina.6

Note: Economists generally agree that the net fiscal effect of immigration on the U.S. economy is positive, but the costs of health care and education at the state level have remained in question. The study of the economic impact of migration on the economy of the new immigrant state of North Carolina is therefore instructive.

A Snapshot in Numbers

ECONOMIC IMPACT

4 Jacoby, p. 58.5 “Remittances 2005: Promoting Financial Democracy.” InterAmerican

Development Bank, Washington, DC: March 2006, p 12.6 “North Carolina’s Hispanic immigrants contribute more than $9 billion

to economy, cost state budget net $102 per Hispanic resident, new study shows.” University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 3 Jan, 2006. http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm.


IMMIGRANTS AND ECONOMICS: TWO VIEWS

In thinking about illegal immigration, the lead-ership of the Catholic Church has focused on only one thing—the illegal aliens them-

selves. To be sure, they are our fellow human beings made in the image of God and they are entitled to be treated as such, regardless of the fact

that they have broken the law. But the impact on Americans, particularly the poorest and most vul-nerable American workers, seems to have entirely escaped the attention of the Church leadership, though not necessarily ordinary Catholics.

Common sense, eco-nomic theory and a fair reading of the research on this question indicate that allowing in so many immigrants (legal and illegal) who have very little education reduces the wages and job prospects of the poorest and least educated American workers. According to my research, the number of native-born Americans with only a high school degree or less who are not working increased by 1.5 million

IMMIGRANTS AND ECONOMICS: TWO VIEWS


…any discussion that focuses only on the undocumented immigrants and

their moral worth, with virtually no regard to the impact on poor Americans,

cannot produce a moral policy.

Mr. Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies

in Washington, DC.

15WINTER 2006–2007 • IN ALL THINGSwww.inallthings.org VISIT OUR WEB SITEVISIT OUR WEB SITE www.inallthings.org

“The community which

Christ creates by his death

challenges the world to

believe, to act justly, to

speak respectfully to one

another of serious things,

to transform its systems of

relations, to take Christ’s

commandments as the

basis of its life.”

Society of Jesus

General Congregation 34:

Decree 2, n. 13

VISAS


Businesses have a “precious role to play on the way economic realties are seen.”3 Our country’s economic system isn’t a zero-sum game of pros-perity, but an environment of sustainable growth. Enterprises must adapt to many dynamics to survive and thrive, and as busi-nesses bear the bulk of the responsibility to grow the economy and create jobs, we are implored to “[concretely make solidarity] an integral part of the networks of eco-nomic, political, and social interdependence that the current process of globalization tends to consoli-date.”4 Immigration policy is an important oppor-tunity to integrate solidarity into our political and social interdependence.

American Immigration Policy and Labor

Tamar Jacoby explains well the complexity of the concern about immigration depressing American wages:

“Opponents of immigration ask why employ-ers do not simply pay American workers more and avoid the need for foreign labor. But many industries cannot pay more, because they would

be undercut by imports from abroad. Even in sectors such as construction and hospital-ity, in which the work must be done in the United States, it hardly makes sense to lure

an American to a less productive job than he or she is capable of by paying more for less-skilled work. Meanwhile, because they complement rather than compete with most native-born workers (and this in turn attracts additional capital), immi-grants raise rather than

lower most Americans’ wages.”5

This argument expresses the importance of immigrant labor, despite the fact that the increased competition from abroad can impact individual laborers. The U.S. government has the capacity to regulate the degree to which American workers compete with laborers abroad, but in the case of U.S. immigration, policies lag behind the corpo-rate reality.

U.S. policies tend to facilitate immigration of highly-skilled workers, but the number of visas issued to low-skilled workers lags behind economic

Where Are Undocumented Immigrants Working?

Percentage of Undocumented Immigrants in Industries Where They Are Most Represented

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Source: Passel, p. 26, supra p. 4.


they can’t afford to buy health care on their own. Schools in many low-income districts across the country are also straining under the burden cre-ated by the arrival of low-income immigrant fami-lies. Letting in large numbers of people with little education necessarily reduces what can be done for poor Americans.

To be sure, immigra-tion is not the only problem low-income Americans face. But reducing immigration is something tangible we can do to help less-educated and low-income Americans both in the labor market and when it comes to public services.

With one million legal immigrants allowed into the country each year—half of whom have no education beyond high school—we already have the most generous legal

U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?

“Foreign workers are

not to be considered

merchandise or merely

manpower… Every

migrant enjoys inalienable

fundamental rights which

must be respected in all

cases.”

The Love of Christ Towards

Migrants, Instruction of the

Pontifical Council for the

Pastoral Care of Migrants and

Itinerant People, 2004

IMMIGRANTS AND ECONOMICS: TWO VIEWS — The Poor at Home, continued Smart Business, continued — IMMIGRANTS AND ECONOMICS: TWO VIEWS

Immigrants often bring a rich cultural heritage with them. Danza Sagrado Corazon celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart, with an annual procession through their border neighborhood in El Paso, Texas.

REV. R

AFA

EL GA

RC

IA, S.J.

“Our common faith in Jesus

Christ moves us to search

for ways that favor a spirit

of solidarity. It is a faith that

transcends borders and bids

us to overcome all forms of

discrimination and violence

so that we may build

relationships that are just

and loving.”

Strangers No Longer


and Mexican Bishops

immigration system in the world. Given the real-ity of what low-income Americans face in the job market, and when it comes to accessing key social services, it simply makes no sense to argue that we need to allow in, legally, even more immigrants with

relatively little education. Of course, we should deal

with undocumented immi-grants humanely. And we may even wish to consider legal-izing some portion of the 12 million already here, though I am personally very skepti-cal of such proposals. But any reasonable discussion of the issue has to acknowledge the impact on low-income Americans of allowing undoc-

umented immigrants to stay or increasing legal immigration further, something the Church has failed to do. ❖

Note1. Steven A. Camarota, “Dropping Out: Immigrant Entry and Native Exit from the Labor Market, 2000–2005.” March 2006. www.cis.org/

articles/2006/back206.html.

It is interesting that we have special immigration provisions for those at the top of the value chain,

but few for those jobs at the bottom, which are traditionally

filled by the uneducated and the poor—or immigrants.

Because of the limited value of their labor in the modern

American economy, persons with little education mostly work at jobs that don’t provide health care. And their low incomes mean they can’t afford to buy

health care on their own.


The Catholic Case for Comprehensive Immigration ReformJ. KEVIN APPLEBY

As Catholics, we must understand that immi-gration is a humanitar-

ian and, ultimately, moral issue in addition to the economic, social, and security aspects that have pre-dominated the national debate.

For Catholics, immigration is a moral issue because of the Gospel mandate to “welcome the stranger,” because “what you do unto the least of my breth-ren, you do unto me” (cf. Mt 25:35, 40-41). According to Catholic teaching, in the face of the migrant, we see the face of Christ.

It is also a moral issue for Catholics because each day in par-ishes and Catholic social service programs, hospitals and schools, the human consequences of a broken immigration system are apparent. Families are separated, migrants are exploited by unscru-pulous employers and smugglers, and human beings, desper-ate to escape poverty, per-ish in the American desert.

Because of its harm-ful impact on human life and human dignity, the U.S. Catholic bishops have stated that the status quo is immoral and have called for comprehensive reform of the U.S. immigration system.

The bishops’ prescription for mending the system is to empha-size legality over illegality through the creation of legal avenues for migration, and the extension of legal status and a path to citi-zenship to undocumented immi-grants in the United States. This includes rigorous enforcement of the laws, to be sure, but suggests a more comprehensive approach that reforms all aspects of the immigration system.

While Catholics and oth-ers of good will may disagree with this remedy, it represents, in the view of the U.S. bishops, the most effective, humane and

practical approach to solving our immigration crisis.

Comprehensive immigration reform would help immigrants and their families remain togeth-er by legalizing undocumented family members who otherwise might be deported. It would reduce deaths by ensuring that migrants have the legal means to enter the United States in a safe and orderly manner. Finally, it would improve national secu-rity by encouraging the undoc-umented population to identify themselves to the government and by giving law enforcement enhanced ability to know who is entering the country and for what purpose.

Some Catholics and other commentators have argued that undocumented workers and their families should not receive legal status because they live outside the law and are “law breakers.”

Before rendering judgment, we must consider that U.S. immigra-tion policy is so incongruent that it creates conditions that encour-age illegal immigration and law breaking.

For example, while the federal government has spent billions on border enforcement over the past 15 years, during the same period the number of undocumented people in the nation has more than doubled. This is primar-ily because, once they arrive in the United States, more than 80 percent of migrant workers find jobs with U.S. industries, such as construction, service, manu-facturing and agriculture.1

Available employment is a powerful magnet drawing immi-grants into this country. Since we use their labor and do not penalize those employers who hire them, are we not complicit in this lawbreaking?

To compound matters, U.S. immigration law fails to provide legal channels for these work-ers to migrate safely and legal-ly. With as many as 500,000 undocumented persons entering the country each year, the num-ber of work visas available for low-skilled workers is absurdly small compared to demand—5,000 per year in the permanent system and fewer than 100,000 per year in the temporary one. Family unity visas are even more scarce, with waiting times as long as 10 years for immediate family members from Mexico to be reunited.

Given these realities, it is important that the U.S. immigration system be changed to reflect the con-tributions of immigrant workers and to protect their rights. By providing them legal status and a path to citizenship, undocumented workers would be better able to assert their rights in

the workplace and fully contrib-ute to their communities without fear.

Over the long-term, our elected officials must examine the root causes of migration and work with the sending countries to create jobs for migrants in their home communities. This represents the ultimate solution to our immigration crisis, one that the erection of a 700-mile border fence cannot provide.

It is unjust for us to benefit from the hard work of undocu-mented workers while relegating them to a permanent underclass. As a nation, we cannot have it both ways. ❖

U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?

demand. It is interesting that we have special immi-gration provisions for those at the top of the value chain, but few for those jobs at the bottom, which are traditionally filled by the uneducated and the poor—or immigrants.

Why is it that our systems and policies don’t support this stratum of the workforce? Why is it that, while the majority of undocumented immigrants are contributing members of society, there is a move to criminalize those who have already entered our country? John Paul II wanted us to make “use of new opportunities for the redistribution of wealth… to the benefit of the underprivileged.”6

I am certainly not advocating completely open borders, but I am advocating that the government provide businesses the appropriate tools to help workers and their families become appropriately documented. Only through legal documentation can migrants’ dignity be protected and promoted, for example through labor protection laws and bargaining power. As a Catholic, I have a par-ticular interest to make sure that the integrity of the family is protected and that the basic human

rights and dignity of immigrants (and all people) are respected.

But it’s not just the rules and the laws that have to change; it’s the accompanying attitudes as well. If this were a no-growth economy, there might be justified concern that undocumented workers are suppressing wages. Yet in a growth economy, com-petition impacts wages; and in a globalizing world, the terms of competition are changing.

Conclusion

America’s economic growth provides oppor-tunities, and it remains part of the immi-grant tradition of this country to come

to the U.S. seeking them. The social message of the Gospel must not be considered a theory, but above all else a basis and motivation for action. Our Catholic ethic calls upon us to allow immigrants the chance to seek the opportunities to fulfill their dignity. Our economy therefore enables us to easily follow our Catholic social ethic and allow those who are undocumented to become legal participants. ❖

IMMIGRANTS AND ECONOMICS: TWO VIEWS — Smart Business, continued

“When I recall how our parish

community and so many

others have fasted, prayed,

advocated, and marched

for just and humane

immigration reform, I

recognize the Spirit of God

powerfully at work, the same

generous and courageous

Spirit that filled Isaiah when

he said, ‘Here I am Lord,

send me.’” (Isaiah 6:8)

Rev. Sean Carroll, S.J., Associate

Pastor, Dolores Mission Parish,

Los Angeles, CA

Mr. Appleby is Director of Policy for Migration and Refugee Services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.1 Rakesh Kochkar. Survey of Mexican Migrants: Part III: The Economic Transition to America. Pew Hispanic Center, Dec. 6, 2005, pp. 13–14.

Notes1. Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and

Teaching of the Church’s Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 26, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome: 1988, p. 32.

2. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome: 2004, n. 297. Henceforth referred to as Compendium.

3. Compendium, n. 564.

4. Ibid.5. Tamar Jacoby, “Immigration Nation.” Foreign Affairs 85(6), p. 57.6. John Paul II. Address of John Paul II to the Members of the

Vatican Founation “Centesimus Annus—Pro Pontifice.” 9 May 1998. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speech-es/1998/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_09051998_fondazione-cent-annus_en.html.

“Catholic teaching has a

long and rich tradition

in defending the right to

migrate. Based on the life

and teachings of Jesus,

the Church’s teaching has

provided the basis for

the development of basic

principles regarding the

right to migrate for those

attempting to exercise their

God-given human rights.”

Strangers No Longer


and Mexican Bishops Available employment is a powerful magnet drawing immigrants into this country. Since we use their labor and do not penalize those

employers who hire them, are we not complicit in this lawbreaking?


Hospitality: Welcoming the Stranger

The 34th General Congre-gation of the Society of Jesus invoked the virtue of

hospitality as animating its mission in the world today, “making the Society a symbol of welcome” to the poor and marginalized (Decree 1, no. 11). Today, many ethicists are urging a recovery of this ancient biblical virtue. The Old Testament is a chronicle of God’s hospitality to humanity and a summons to imitate this divine hospitality for others. Israel and the early church long upheld Abraham as a model of hospitality. Having experienced what it is like to be a sojourner from his homeland, Abraham feeds and shelters three strang-ers who are revealed to be divine messengers (Gen 18:1-15). The author of the letter to the Hebrews implicitly reminds Chris-tian communities of Abraham’s example: “Do not neglect to show hos-pitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without know-ing it” (13:2).

The people of Israel identify so much with the stranger because they were once refugees in Egypt and migrants across the desert on their way to the Promised Land. Enshrining a duty to care for the stranger, the Torah reminds Israel of their once-alien status: “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Ex 23:9). The prophets repeat admonitions not to oppress the alien (Jer 7:5-7; Zech 7:9-10) and rail against Israel when in times of great prosperity they oppress the poor and defenseless.

The Gospels, too, extol the virtue of hospitality, identifying Jesus with the stranger and out-cast. The innkeeper does not wel-come Joseph and Mary, and Jesus is born in the squalor of a man-ger. Soon after Jesus’ birth, the Holy Family become refugees, fleeing Herod’s persecution and migrating to Egypt. Though fac-ing rejection from the time of his birth to his death, Jesus repeatedly exercises the virtue of hospitality, feeding the hungry and welcom-ing outsiders. All are welcome to his table (Lk 7:36-50; 14:15-24). At the same time, Jesus and his

disciples rely on the hospitality of others to support their itinerant ministry (e.g., Mk 6:10-11; Lk 10:4-12, 38-42).

The Gospels teach that the stranger is to be welcomed as Christ (Mt 25:35). Luke depicts the Risen Lord as a stranger who encounters two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35). In a parable about the final judg-ment, Jesus declares that failing to welcome the stranger is an offense against God (Mt 25:43). Jesus calls his disciples to be like the Good Samaritan who recognizes the suffering of the stranger and acts out of compassion to help him (Lk 10:25-37). Accordingly, early Christians were expected to

“be hospitable to one another” (1 Pet 4:9). Paul urges his com-munities to exercise hospitality to strangers in a spirit of gratitude for God’s graciousness to them (Rom 12:9-13; 15:7). Like Jesus and his disciples, Paul and other Christian missionaries depend on the hospitality of communities to support their itinerant mission (Rom 15:22-29; 2 Cor 8:16-24; Phlm 22).

The Practice of Solidarity and Accompaniment

While hospitality is an ancient virtue, the term “solidarity”

was first used in a papal encyc-lical in 1939. Its meaning has evolved over time. Most recently, in his landmark social encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), John Paul II described solidarity as a virtue, not some “feeling of vague compassion” but “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all” (no. 38). The virtue of soli-darity is thus a disposition to serve the spiritual and material needs of others. As such, only solidar-ity can “conquer” the opposing

vice, which John Paul describes as the all-consuming thirst for riches and power that devalues and oppresses others (no. 38). Like the virtue of hospitality, solidar-ity must be learned through prac-tice; mere “book knowledge” is not enough. In a speech at Santa Clara University in 2000, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., superior general of the Society of Jesus, asserted that solidarity must be “learned through ‘contact’ rather than through ‘concepts.’” When our heart is engaged by personal involvement in innocent suffering, we are impelled to act in a reflec-tive, effective way.

As we practice hospitality and solidarity on behalf of migrants,

we can look to the Jesuit Refugee Service for inspira-tion. JRS describes its way of proceeding as “accom-paniment,” which means sharing the lives of dis-placed persons and build-ing relationships steeped in mutuality. Accompaniment means not just doing some-thing for migrants but being

with them in their joys and hopes, grief and anguish. JRS personnel work, live, pray, and play alongside refugees. Hospitality and solidar-ity become a way of life and instill a deeply felt, long-standing com-mitment to refugees and displaced persons. In so doing, JRS workers learn to appreciate the gifts that migrants give us in their cultur-al heritage, work ethic, spirit of hospitality, resilience of faith, and dedication to family and commu-nity.

Human dignity, the common good, hospitality and solidarity call us to the high ideals of the reign of God. At the same time, accompaniment asks us to get our hands dirty, our feet worn, and our hearts broken accompanying migrants on their road of exile or in their shadowy, provisional exis-tence. Because it places us with the poor, accompaniment ensures that as we go about our work, we will not anesthetize ourselves from human suffering, turning personal tragedy into an academic question. Like Christ who on the road to Emmaus accompanies the deject-ed disciples, we walk alongside migrants, listening to their stories, offering them hope by word and action, and emboldening them to rebuild their lives. ❖

Building with the Four Cornerstones of Accompanying MigrantsA Theological Reflection on MigrationREV. KEVIN O’BRIEN, S.J.

In recent decades, with a growing sense of urgency, the Catholic Church has brought

its century-old tradition of social teaching to bear on the plight of refugees, internally displaced per-sons, and migrants. Practicing its fundamental option for the poor, the Church has served and advo-cated on behalf of those people forced from their homes by war, civil conflict, political persecu-tion, or economic necessity. In the last decade, U.S. bishops have responded with a series of state-ments and campaigns to address the crisis of forced migration in the Americas. Their response has been very practical, proposing detailed action plans for individu-als, parishes, business leaders, and legislators. These practical initia-tives are grounded in both prayer and principle. The bishops insist that effective action on behalf of migrants must be preceded by a conversion of mind and heart that helps us see the face of Christ in the migrant. Such conversion con-fronts head-on deeply ingrained attitudes of cultural superiority, patterns of discrimination, and

ungrounded yet persistent fears of the stranger.

As for principle, I discern in the documents four cornerstones that support a sturdy edifice of theological argument. Together, they persuasively make the case for “Justice for Immigrants,” as the bishops’ most recent campaign is called. These cornerstones—human dignity, the common good, hospitality and solidarity—demonstrate how theology is ulti-mately pastoral, serving concrete human needs.

The Four Cornerstones

The fundamental dignity of each person is an underly-ing principle that connects

the Church’s call to conversion and action. This dignity is grounded in God’s creating humanity in the divine image and in God’s choos-ing to become human in Jesus Christ. From this principle flows an array of moral imperatives, such as the right of persons to migrate for jobs, to earn a living wage in their home country, and to be treated fairly when detained by immigration authorities.

Strident in its defense of individual rights, Catholic social teaching also recognizes our responsibility to care for the com-mon good. As individuals, com-munities, and nations, we have a duty to create conditions that will allow all people to live meaning-ful human lives, regardless of their countries of origin. The principle of the common good recognizes the right of a sovereign nation to protect its borders but insists that it be balanced against the right of migrants to cross borders to sup-port and protect themselves.

Hospitality and solidarity are as much virtues as they are principles for action. While tra-ditional ethical systems focus on articulating universal principles and applying them to concrete cases, virtue ethics is primarily concerned with the person and how character is shaped. It asserts certain virtues—that is, attitudes, dispositions, character traits, and habits—that help us to flourish as persons and live fulfilling lives. Hospitality and solidarity, like any virtues, are cultivated by practic-ing them.

FAITH REFLECTIONS ON MIGRATION FAITH REFLECTIONS ON MIGRATION

“I am blessed to be able to

be assistance to the African

refugees and Hispanic

immigrants. I can witness

to their brokenness and

their healing once they

are established here in

Portland. I have heard

their stories and seen

their wounded bodies. I

have rejoiced with them

when their families have

been reunited after a

period of great insecurity

and separation. I see

their experiences as the

Agony in the Garden,

the Crucifixion and the

Resurrection. These

Africans and Hispanics

have gone through it all

and yet have remained

faithful to Christ Jesus.”

Rev. Richard D. Bertrand, S.J.,

Pastor of Sacred Heart/

St. Dominic Parish, Portland,

ME

Fr. O’Brien (Maryland Province) is Assistant Pastor at Holy Trinity

Church in Washington, DC.

The virtue of solidarity is thus a disposition to serve the spiritual and

material needs of others. As such, only solidarity can “conquer” the opposing

vice, which John Paul describes as the all-consuming thirst for riches and

power that devalues and oppresses others

Rev. Shay Auerbach, S.J. (Maryland Province) visits in El Salvador with Ana Gladys Gomez and Elvia Yamileth Salgado, mother and sister of Himmer Salgado, an immigrant to whom he ministers in Baltimore.

REV. W

ILLIAM

RIC

KLE, S.J.

“Solidarity means taking

responsibility for those

in trouble. The Church

must, therefore, welcome

all persons regardless of

race, culture, language and

nation with joy, charity, and

hope. It must do so with

special care for those who

find themselves—regardless

of motive—in situations of

poverty, marginalization,

and exclusion.”

Strangers No Longer


and Mexican Bishops


Plastic Pitchers and Friends of the LordV. REV. ROBERT SCULLIN, S.J.

This article reflects on how the Society of Jesus might respond to immigration in light of the Jesuit document, “A Meditation On Our Response to the Call of Christ.”1 The Meditation was written by the Provincials of the United States as a guide for the strategic discernment process currently underway among the 10 U.S. Jesuit provinces.

Early in the development of A Meditation On Our Response to the Call of

Christ, those working on the document provincials and staff alike, felt their imaginations moved by the awareness of waves of “forced migrants” here in North America and around the world. The Contemplation on the Incarnation placed us along-side people for whom an empty plastic container is a treasure; and shelter from weather and weap-ons almost bliss.

When immigration—espe-cially immigrants who have entered the country illegally—becomes the topic of conversa-tion today, a tone of hostility sometimes colors it. A nation founded and built by immigrants from many countries, we often resent the recent immigrant who enters illegally. Even in the cases of legal resettlements of immigrants, particularly recent arrivals from Africa, a spirit of fear and suspicion often grips some of the most open-minded and generous souls. A nation of immigrants has ironically exhib-ited a xenophobic streak from its earliest years.

Perhaps what underlies this fear and suspicion is what David B. Couturier, OFM. Cap., calls “a rhetoric of scarcity.” He explains that “Our American culture wants us and needs us to believe in scarcity. There is not enough; there is never enough time, money, care, support, love, goodness, creativity and ingenu-ity to support this world. We have to do more, produce more, spend more, consume more to stave off the dangers of a limited universe. We must compete against one another.”2

According to the “rhetoric of scarcity,” we must protect our limited resources from illegal intruders—those undocumented

immigrants, entering our country in large numbers—because they use up our limited resources. This concern overlooks completely the contribution immigrants make to the U.S. economy, power-fully and concretely depicted on film in A Day without a Mexican (Sergio Arau, 2004). This spirit of fear and suspicion may be an example of what St. Ignatius calls a tactic of “the enemy of our human nature.”

“Perhaps the most pressing and painful examples [of those rel-egated to the very margins of society] are forced migrants (refugees, migrant workers, the undocumented)... Solidarity with them is not a matter of politics. It is part of our soli-darity with Christ and the expression of our love for God.” (Meditation, n. 26 & 27)

The spirit moving in A Meditation On Our Response to the Call of Christ reflects an ethics of abundance that is powerfully depicted in the New Testament and in the Spiritual Exercises; this ethics of abundance calls us

to a constant awareness of God’s abundant love for us. Jesuits in the U.S. experience this abun-dance in a particularly wonder-ful way in the great numbers of friends and colleagues who share the mission. This spirit of God’s abundant love calls us all to a solidarity that is broad and deep, a solidarity with the least and with all. To the extent that we tap into that spirit of abundance, we will hear the biblical man-dates and be moved to care for the stranger in our midst, even those our society would deem unworthy or “illegal.”

The Meditation reminds us that affective and effective soli-darity with the least and with all will cost us: “This commitment [to care for the immigrant and to challenge the spirit of fear] may be offensive to some, but as Jesuits, we make choices that f low from our commitment to choose poverty, dishonor, and humble service of the least among us, even if it must be in the face of a culture promoting self-indul-gent economics, political domi-nation, and lifestyle enclaves” (Meditation, n. 28).

“The need for solidarity with ‘the least’ and with ‘all’ is intensi-fied by the emergence of global interdependence; it must be embodied in habits of life and social institutions far more last-ing than ephemeral headlines and sporadic response to crises” (Meditation, n. 30).

We are called to care for the immigrant in need and, too, for those among us who are con-flicted in our attitudes and posi-tions about the care of migrants, immigration reform, and the larger global issue of millions of refugee families forced by war, terror, and economic need to leave their homes and home-lands. The Meditation leads us to challenge stereotypes by seeking a nuanced understanding of cur-rent immigration patterns, the resulting consequences for our society, and a Gospel response to the plight of these families.

Early in our Jesuit history, Jerome Nadal expressed a Jesuit ethos for attending to those in great need when he wrote: “The

Society cares for those persons who are totally neglected or inadequately attended to. This is the basic reason why the Society was founded; this is its power; this is what makes it distinctive in the Church.”3 Whatever our specific mission, from our ear-liest days we have found ways to attend to the Poor Christ of the Gospels and the Exercises in Christ Poor today—in poul-try factories, in sweatshops, and in war-torn regions around the world. For our own salvation, we must find ways to show a very practical love to immigrants in our cities and around the world. Just as the Jesuit Refugee Service came into existence through the imagination and action of Pedro Arrupe some 25 years ago, new imaginings will lead us to a range of actions today. A simple internet search brings up local and global networks and efforts that welcome our involvement, each of us. And when the U.S. Congress again takes up immi-gration reform, we will have important opportunities to act.

A Meditation On Our Response to the Call of Christ suggests for me an active colloquy with the Lord as I meet him today in this critical moment of our nation’s treatment of migrants and immi-grants.

I started with precious plas-tic pitchers and end remember-ing some of “the most chosen friends of the Lord, the poor.”4 An Ignatian meditation always ends with a colloquy where with great reverence we address the Lord and listen to His invitation. I hear that invitation in the words of a song I wrote some time ago:

Oh my people, think on those before you

Who fled the famines and the killing camps.

These are no less children, fathers, mothers,

Seeking here a life, another chance.

Till their journey ends, and refugees can rest,

Help them on their way, call them by this name:

Not aliens but friends. ❖

FAITH REFLECTIONS ON MIGRATION FAITH REFLECTIONS ON MIGRATION

“I believe I have done so little

for this person knowing she

has to face an unfair world by

herself, but her words touch

me: ‘You speak and make us

find our own answers. You

see us as persons which in

return makes us respect

ourselves.’”

Imelda Bermejo, Jesuit Refugee

Services Chaplain, San Pedro

Detention Center, CA

“This commitment may

be offensive to some,

but as Jesuits, we make

choices that flow from our

commitment to choose

poverty, dishonor, and

humble service of the least

among us, even if it must

be in the face of a culture

promoting self-indulgent

economics, political

domination, and lifestyle

enclaves.”

A Meditation On Our Response

to the Call of Christ, n. 28

“May the Virgin Mother, who together with her Blessed

Son knew the pain of emigration and exile, help us to

understand the experience, and very often the drama, of

those who are compelled to live far from their homeland,

and teach us to serve them in their necessities, truly

accepting them as brothers and sisters, so that today’s

migrations may be considered a call, albeit a mysterious

one, to the Kingdom of God, which is already present in His

Church, its beginning, and an instrument of Providence to

further the unity of the human family and peace.”

The Love of Christ Towards Migrants, Instruction of the

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and

Itinerant People, 2004Fr. Scullin (Detroit Province) is the Provincial of the Detroit Province.

Notes1. The Meditation on Our Response to the Call of Christ was published

by the U.S. Jesuit Provincials on July 31, 2006, the feast of St. Ignatius, and is available online at www.jesuit.org/meditation.

2. “The Love of Nations and the Desire for God: Religious Life at

the Crossroads.” Keynote Address, CMSM Assembly, August 5, 2006, Burlington, VT.

3. Momenta Historica Societatus Iesu, V.90-2, p. 126.4. St. Ignatius, Letter to the Jesuits of Padua, 6 August 1547.

Undocumented young immigrants who are in detention celebrate after being confirmed at Sacred Heart Parish in El Paso, Texas.

24 IN ALL THINGS • WINTER 2006–2007 VISIT OUR WEB SITE www.inallthings.org

Contents MIGRATION: A SIGN OF THE TIMES

The Catholic Church’s Rich Understanding of U.S. Immigration . . 1REV. RICHARD RYSCAVAGE, S.J.The Church sees migration through a rich prism of theology, pastoral care, sociology and history

From the Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2JILL MARIE GERSCHUTZGlobalization, linguistic homogeneity, and war on terror provide new challenges to immigration

Migration: A View from the South. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7ERICA DAHL-BREDINEThe impact of free trade and migration in Mexico

INTEGRATION AND ASSIMILATIONReceiving Immigrants: New Challenges for the Church . . . . . . . . . . . 9

ELZBIETA GOZDZIAKImmigrants settling in new areas and moving to other churches

To Be American, To Be an American Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12REV. JAMES E. GRUMMER, S.J.Remembering where we come from: The Catholic immigration journey

U.S. IMMIGRATION: WHAT IS THE JUST RESPONSE?Immigrants and Economics: Two Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

LAURANCE O. ALVARADOPracticing Catholic Social Teaching Is Also Smart Business

Immigrants and Economics: Two Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15STEPHEN A. CAMAROTAWhat the Catholic Church Is Missing: Care for the Poor at Home First

The Catholic Case for Comprehensive Immigration Reform . . . . . . 19J. KEVIN APPLEBYViews of the U.S. Catholic Bishops

FAITH REFLECTIONS ON MIGRATIONBuilding with the Four Cornerstones of Accompanying Migrants . 20

REV. KEVIN O’BRIEN, S.J.A Theological Reflection on Migration

Plastic Pitchers and Friends of the Lord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22V. REV. ROBERT J. SCULLIN, S.J.An Ignatian Meditation from the Detroit Provincial

ONLINE SUPPLEMENT . . . . . . . . . . www.inallthings.org

The Rights of Passage: The Ethics of Migration PolicyREV. WILLIAM R. O’NEILL, S.J.

Rebuilding New Orleans on the Backs of ImmigrantsWILLIAM QUIGLEY

Tips for Pastoral Care of MigrantsSR. CHARLOTTE HOBELMAN, SND

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RESOURCES

Reflection Questions❖ How has your faith influenced your views on immigration?

❖ From the perspective of Catholic social teaching, what is the United States’ obligation to foreigners entering or seeking to enter the United States? And what is our obligation to foreigners in the United States?

❖ Discuss the possible impacts of immigration—economic, social, and cultural—on immigrant sending countries.

❖ How are today’s immigrants similar to Jesus’ itinerant lifestyle? How are they different? Do you see the face of Jesus in your immigrant neighbors?

❖ Discuss the challenge of balancing between respecting the differences of immigrants’ home cultures and asking immigrants to integrate into the host culture.

❖ Considering their history and future, how can and should the Church and the Society of Jesus welcome “strangers in our midst?” How can we respect and protect their dignity?

Books

Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America—Elzbieta M. Gozdziak and Susan F. Martin, eds. Analyzes case studies on integration in new immigrant communities across the U.S. Lexington Books, New York: 2005.

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration—Douglas Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone. Analyzes the effect of NAFTA and border militarization on migration flows. Russell Sage Foundation, New York: 2002.

“Consolation in Action: The Jesuit Refugee Service and the Ministry of Accompaniment”—Kevin O’Brien, S.J. Offers a historical and spiritual perspective on the Jesuit humanitarian agency. Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 37(4). Winter 2005.

Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope—U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Washington, DC: 2003.

Mirrors and Windows Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and their Families—Mark Lyons and August Terrier, eds. Provides a bilingual, personal look at migration through the words of farmworkers. New City Community Press, Philadelphia: 2004.

Web SitesJustice for Immigrants Campaign www.justiceforimmigrants.org Provides background information,

pastoral teaching, and advocacy opportunities from the U.S. Catholic Bishops.

National Immigration Forumwww.immigrationforum.org National advocacy agency on

immigrants’ rights analyzes U.S. migration policy.

Migration Policy Institutewww.migrationpolicy.org A non-partisan think tank

dedicated to the study of the movement of peoples worldwide.

U.N. High Level Dialogue on Migrationhttp://www.un.int/iom/HLD2.html Information on the U.N. forum

regarding human rights, development and migration.

Jesuit University Migration Network http://jesuitmigration.fairfield.edu/ New website will soon become a

source for academic research on migration from Jesuit institutions.

the catholic church’s rich understanding of u.s. immigration · 2013-06-03 · poorest countries...

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