Catholic Social Teaching on Migration

This weekend I went to a lecture at St. Tomas University on immigration. The Honduran Consulate was supposed to speak, but she never showed up and the lecture turned into a discussion on immigration reform. We centered most of our discussion on Catholic Social Teaching, which I found interesting since just last week we had our JVC Winter Retreat that was focused on social justice and Catholic Social Teaching.

There are maybe around 6 points to CST on migration, but the two that are most relevant to the work I do are the second and third points. (By the way, this stuff is put out by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, so I’m not just making this up or pulling it from random sources). The second point states: “Persons have the right to migrate to support themselves and their families. The Church recognizes that all the goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right.”

The third point says: “Sovereign nations have the right to control their borders. The Church recognizes the right of sovereign nations to control their territories but rejects such control when it is exerted merely for the purpose of acquiring additional wealth. More economically powerful nations, which have the ability to protect and feed their residents, have a stronger obligation to accommodate migration flows.” This kind of goes with that says, “To whom much has been given, much is expected in return.” I think we can all agree the United States falls into this category.

The issue of immigration isn’t a black and white problem that has a simple fix. There are many factors, some that the United States can control and some we can’t, but that doesn’t mean we just ignore the problem and continue treating immigrants as though they are sub-human. My personal opinion is that there needs to be some kind of amnesty for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. Right now there is no path to legalization for undocumented immigrants. I see families all the time whose father was brought illegally into the U.S. as a young child and was raised in the U.S. and has no connections in his country of origin. He meets a U.S. citizen, they get married and have a few children who are citizens and the father works hard to earn money and support his children. The family comes to me for help legalizing the father, Immigration rejects the petition, the father is deported, and the mother is left to raise the children alone with the help of government benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. Would it not have been better for Immigration to legalize the father so he could continue supporting his family instead of deporting him and leaving the U.S. government with that responsibility? People say new immigrants are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens. Maybe this is true, but all my clients work in factories, as domestic workers, field laborers, dishwashers, and janitors. I don’t see many U.S. citizens fighting for these positions. And the majority of the undocumented people working in these positions are paid unfair wages and forced to work in extreme conditions. Employers could hire citizens instead, but the choose the undocumented because they can exploit them and earn more money for themselves. It’s a form of neo-slavery that clearly goes against Catholic Social Teaching.

America is not the same America it was 50 years ago. We’re more diverse and there is a need to be multi-cultural and multi-lingual. We’re in a time of change and growth and becoming a more diverse country can only help us. There will never be an easy answer to the immigration problem, but I think we can do a better job of welcoming those already here and treating them with human dignity. All of our families were once immigrants seeking a better life. Would we be so quick to close the door on today’s migrants if it was our families’ lives at stake?

Paz,
Stephanie