What Benedict XVI has to say
about immigration - while lawmakers
can propose no acceptable middle way
12/3/09
Immigration hides a much deeper question about simple peaceful coexistence among peoples.
Usually two camps oppose each other on this issue: the sentimentalists, for whom any immigrant is someone needy who must be welcomed without reservations; and the rigorists, for whom the immigrant is always a menace against which one must defend oneself.
The first would open all the frontiers and close their eyes to all the internal problems brought on by immigration, especially if illegal. The second would simply close the doors and wash their hands of the matter.
But both are really avoiding the issue. Even in the supposed nuances of intermediate positions, the debate simply swings between the two poles.
But there is a third way - that indicated by Benedict XVI in
Caritas in veritate which he reiterates in his recent address regarding the World Day for Migrants.
This way looks to safeguarding the rights of those who come into a country and those who must host them. It is open to human hospitality, without forgetting that on the international level, this is a phenomenon that has to do with poverty and injustice that require a commitment by everyone in order to resolve.
[But it does not condone illegal immigration, since it emphasizes that immigrants must respect the law. It does imply that host country laws for dealing with illegal immigrants should be charitable while being fair.]
It is ambitious because it goes to the point - that whether migrants or host people, indigent or well-off, we are all human beings.
Immigration is the rock on which the weakness of the dominant culture founders. When there is no single unifying vision about the destiny of man, the alternative is a clash of civilizations that divides, or an emotional confrontation that does not unite.
But Benedict calls for moving forward and beyond the stumbling block. As he said in the Angelus last Sunday, rich or poor, developing nation or economically evolved, "we are all on the same boat, and we should all save ourselves together".
Immigration is a complex issue that is difficult enough with legal immigrants when their culture is very different from that of their new country. But illegal immigrants have become an acute problem, especially in the United States.
The danger with statements made by Vatican officials directly involved with the immigrant problem is that, in defense of illegal aliens, they make it appear that immigration is a right that populations must avail of in order to find a better life. This completely ignores the genuine right of host countries to regulate immigration according to their national interests.
However, this is not the right thread for this discussion, so I will find a news peg to return to it in the ISSUES thread.