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CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND MIGRATION Presentation July 2008 PREPARED BY THE CATHOLIC LEGAL IMMIGRATION NETWORK, INC. (CLINIC)
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CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND MIGRATION

Presentation July 2008

PREPARED BY THE CATHOLIC LEGAL IMMIGRATION NETWORK, INC. (CLINIC)

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Who Is My Neighbor? How Can I Be a Neighbor?

The parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37): anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor.

The parable of the Last Judgment (cf. Mt 25:31-46): love becomes the criterion for the definitive decision about a human life's worth or lack thereof.

Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

Source, Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Es, 15 (2005).

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Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

Dignity of the Human Person and Respect for Life

Community and the Common Good

Rights and Responsibilities

Preferential Option for the Poor

Dignity of Work

Solidarity and the Human Family

Care for God’s Creation

Subsidiarity

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The Dignity of the Person and Respect for Life

Every human life is sacred, created in the image of God, and therefore invaluable and worthy of protection and respect. It is not what persons do or what they have that gives them a claim on respect; being human establishes their dignity. The human person is always an end, never a means. Respect for human life – from conception to natural death – is the basis of a just society. The God-given dignity of each means that everybody is equally valued.

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Community and the Common Good

Human beings are social by nature. We realize our dignity and rights in community. “We are one body; when one suffers, we all suffer.” The family is the central social institution. We are called to be good stewards of the earth and each other.

The common good is the sum total of the social conditions that allow us to reach our full human potential and to realize our human dignity. We have a duty to seek the common good and well-being of all. Governments exist to promote the common good.

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God-Given Rights and Responsibilities

Persons have a fundamental right to life, food, shelter, health care, education and employment. All have the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. All have duties and responsibilities to respect the rights of others, and to work for the common good.

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Preferential Option (Decision) for the Poor

The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on us. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor. Putting the needs of the poor and vulnerable first furthers the common good.

This principle does not connote a preference for one group over another or an optional course of conduct. The Spanish word might better be translated as “decision,” rather than “option.” The principle reflects the need to restore the poor to their proper place in the human family. The universality of God’s love and the moral imperative to honor the dignity of all persons compel concrete actions on behalf of those whose rights have been violated or imperiled.

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Dignity of Work

People have a right to decent and productive work, fair wages, private property and economic initiative. The economy exists to serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a way to participate in God’s creation.

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Solidarity and the Human Family

We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic and ideological lines. We are called to work globally for justice. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, wherever they live. Love of neighbor has global dimensions.

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Care for God’s Creation

The goods of the earth are gifts from God. We have a responsibility to care for these goods as stewards and trustees, not as mere consumers and users. We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Private property has a social mortgage.

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Subsidiarity

This principle deals with the responsibilities and limits of government and voluntary associations. It teaches that no higher level of organization should attempt to address a situation that can be handled efficiently and effectively at a lower level of organization by persons, individually or in groups.

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Human Rights: a Definition

[T]here is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life for example, food, clothing, housing, the right freely to choose their state of life and set up a family, the right to education, work, to their good name, to respect, to proper knowledge, the right to act according to the dictates of conscience and to safeguard their privacy, and rightful freedom, including freedom of religion.”

Pastoral Constitutional on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes § 26:

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Human Rights: How the Church Conceives of Them

First, rights derive from the God-given dignity of each human person. States exist to protect rights, but ultimately rights come from God, not from membership in a state or from a particular immigration status.

Second the Church defines rights expansively to include political, civic, social, and economic rights. Rights safeguard all that is necessary to live a truly human life.

Third, the Church views persons as social beings, and the family as the fundamental social unit.

Fourth, rights invariably entail duties.

Fifth, respecting rights does not undermine the “common good” but advances it.

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Biblical/Catholic Teaching Themes Related to Migration

Migration is a central narrative of our faith

Newcomers Image God

We are a Pilgrim People in a Pilgrim Church

Migration Provides an Opportunity to Build the Human Family

God-given rights, the Common Good, and Solidarity Structure our Thinking on Migration

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Migration is a Central Narrative of Our Faith

Migration has played such a key role in our tradition that you might call it a mystery in plain view. It has always been a way that we have encountered God. Physical uprooting has led us -- as a people -- to our spiritual grounding.

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Migration in Hebrew Scripture

“You shall not oppress an alien; you well know how it feels to be an alien, since you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt’ (Ex 23:9).

“When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt’ (Lv. 19:33).”

Source, Rev. Kenneth R. Himes, OFM, “The Rights of People Regarding Migration: A Perspective from Catholic Social Teaching,” Who Are My Sisters

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Migration in the New Testament

The émigré Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family. Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution, Exsul Familia (1952).

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him,“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” (Lk 10:57-58).

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Migration and the Early Church

The earliest Christians referred to themselves as “paroikoi,” which means sojourners, displaced people, migrants.

The term had a spiritual meaning but in fact the early Christians in Rome, Corinth and Asia Minor were mostly migrants, without full rights and subject to discrimination and persecution.

The word “paroikoi” is the root of our modern word “parish.” A “parish” then is a place where migrants gather to worship.

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Immigration and the Catholic Church in the United States

“Once a small minority of Anglo-American landed gentry in the eighteenth century, the Catholic Church in the United States became a working class, urban Church during the nineteenth century. The entire pastoral agenda of the Church changed to accommodate the new immigrants and their descendants. For today’s American Catholics to have forgotten that history is akin to the prophets claim about Israel’s historical amnesia regarding the exodus or exile.”

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The Church Sees in Newcomers the Face of God

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Mt. 25:35).

“How can the baptized claim to welcome Christ if they close the door to the foreigner who comes knocking?” Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, 5 (Nov. 21, 1999).

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A Pilgrim People in a Pilgrim Church

We are all moving through life as pilgrims on a spiritual journey. We are a pilgrim people in pilgrim Church.

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.” (Heb: 13:14).

In St. Augustine’s formulation, we are pilgrims on a journey home to the City of God.

St. Teresa of Avila taught that “life is a night spent in an uncomfortable inn.”

Pope Benedict XVI: for Christians every foreign nation is a homeland and every homeland is a foreign nation.

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Migration Presents an Opportunity to Build the Human Family

The Church’s mission is to gather together God’s scattered children. (Jn. 11:52).

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Migration need not be a cause for division, but should be seen as an opportunity to build the “human family.”

We see migrants as our “brothers and sisters,” as “us” not “them.”

Identity and values find expression in culture. Because migration restores cultural pluralism, it can contribute to the unity of the human family.

All cultures need to be renewed: “[N]o culture is either permanent or perfect. All constantly need to be evangelized and uplifted by the good news of Jesus Christ.” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity (Nov. 2000), p. 28.

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Human Dignity and the Right Not to Migrate

The fundamental solution is that there would no longer exist the need to emigrate because there would be in one’s own country sufficient work, a sufficient social fabric, such that no one has to emigrate.” Interview with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI (April 15, 2008)

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Migrants Have God-Given Rights Based on Their Human Dignity“But where a State which suffers from poverty combined with great population cannot supply such use of goods to its inhabitants, or where the State places conditions which offend human dignity, people possess a right to emigrate, to select a new home in foreign lands, and to seek conditions of life worthy of man. ” Sacred Congregation for Bishops, Instruction on the Pastoral Care of People Who Migrate, 7 (August 22, 1969).

The U.S. and Mexican bishops created a presumption that “persons must migrate in order to support and protect themselves and that nations who are able to receive them should do so whenever possible.” Conferencia del Espiscopado Mexicano and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope, 39 (Jan. 2003).

Human beings are called to give of themselves to God and to others. Persons typically migrate to support their families. Thus, migration allows them to realize their full potential or to become fully human.

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The Universal or Border-less Common Good

The responsibility to honor the common good by protecting rights extends across borders.

The growing inter-dependence of nations in responding to challenges like the environment, war, poverty, and immigration and in safeguarding the rights of their members requires that states “take into account the needs and legitimate aspirations of every other group, and even those of the human family as a whole.” Pope Paul VI, Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 26 (December 7, 1965)

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The Common Good Overarches the Church’s Analysis

The Church defines the “common good” as “sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfillment.” The “common good” allows people to flourish and to realize their God-given dignity.

When immigrants are allowed to contribute and to belong, it benefits a community and a nation.

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The Common Good and Border Control

“The Church recognizes the right of a sovereign state to control its borders in furtherance of the common good. It also recognizes the right of human persons to migrate so that they can realize their God-given rights. These teachings complement each other. While the sovereign state may impose reasonable limits on immigration, the common good is not served when the basic human rights of the individual are violated.” Conferencia del Espiscopado Mexicano and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope, 39 (Jan. 2003).

Sovereignty is not about denying people’s rights or humanity, but about locating state responsibility for protecting rights. As the border network has reminded us, this responsibility too often gets lost on the migrant journey.

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The Common Good Applies to All

“It is against the common good and unacceptable to have a double society, one visible with rights and one invisible without rights -- a voiceless underground of undocumented persons.” National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Together a New People: Pastoral Statement on Migrants and Refugees (1986)

“The common good will not be attained by excluding people. We can’t enrich the common good of our country by driving out those we don’t care for.” Archbishop Romero

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People Advance the Common Good through Solidarity

“When interdependence becomes recognized …, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a ‘virtue,’ is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm a 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.” Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,

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Why should we stand in solidarity with immigrantsWe belong to a Church of migrants

We live in a nation of immigrants

We are migrants on a spiritual journey to our final home

Jesus identified with migrants in an intense and personal way

Our salvation depends on it.

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Migration is a Central Narrative of Our Faith and A Way We Have

Encountered God

Migration has played such a key role in our tradition that you might call it a mystery in plain view. It has always been a main way that we have encountered God. Not surprisingly, theologians have begun to identify a distinct spirituality of migrants. Physical uprooting and migration has always led us to our spiritual grounding.

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Public Policy Principles / Justice for Immigrants

“All persons have the right to find in their own countries the economic, political, and social opportunities to live in dignity and achieve a full life through the use of their God-given gifts.” Conferencia del Espiscopado Mexicano and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope, 34 (Jan. 2003).

“The fundamental solution is that there would no longer exist the need to emigrate because thee would be in one’s own country sufficient work, a sufficient social fabric, such that no one has to emigrate.” Interview with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI (Apr. 15, 2008).

We need to integrate most immigrants into the life of our nation, treat them as citizens-to-be.

“Now among the rights of a human person there must be included that by which a man may enter a political community where he hopes he can more fittingly provide a future for himself and his dependents. Wherefore, as far as the common good rightly understood permits, it is the duty of that state to accept such immigrants and to help to integrate them into itself as new members.” Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (Apr. 11, 1963).

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Justice for Immigrants

Persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland.

Persons have the rights to migrate to support themselves and their families.

Sovereign nations have a right to control their borders.

Refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection.

The human rights and human dignity of the undocumented migrants should be respected

http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org

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Principles for Comprehensive Reform

Increase family-based immigration.Provide a path to legal status for deserving groups, like agricultural laborers and undocumented children raised in the United States.Allow certain other undocumented persons to “earn” legal status through their labor, demonstration of good character, and payment of a fine. Enforce our immigration laws in a targeted and humane way.

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What Kind of Nation Do We Want?

“Every true nation is the creation of a unique people, separate from all others. Indeed, if America is an ideological nation grounded no deeper than in the sandy soil of abstract ideas, she will not survive the storms of this century.” Patrick Buchanan.

“America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens.”

“The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born.” President George W. Bush, Inaugural Address (Jan. 20, 2001).

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Who Are Immigrants?

They are:One in every eight people residing in the U.S.

One in seven workers.

One in five low-wage workers.

One in two new workers in last decade.

(Source, U.S. Census Bureau, Migration Policy Institute)

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By Immigration Status

Of the 37 million foreign-born in the United States, there are:

11.1 million undocumented persons

10.5 million lawful permanent residents

11.5 million naturalized citizens

2.6 million refugee arrivals

1.3 million temporary legal residents

(Source, Pew Hispanic Center).

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Source Regions of U.S. Immigrants

1970 – Europe (62 percent), Latin America (19 percent), Asia (9 percent), Other (10 percent).

2000 – Europe (10 percent), Latin America (51 percent), Asia (26 percent), Other (8 percent).

(Source, U.S. Census Bureau)

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Immigrant Families

One in five U.S. children has a foreign-born parent.

One in four U.S. children in low-income families have a foreign-born parent.

(Source, U.S. Census Bureau, Migration Policy Institute).

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Immigrant Laborers“I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: First, the streets were not paved with gold. Second, they weren’t paved at all. Third, I was expected to pave them.” Anonymous Italian immigrant quoted at Ellis Island display.

The foreign-born are 16 percent of U.S. workforce.

Projected growth in labor force participation by native-born (age 25-45) between 2000-2020: 0.

Source of future net increase in U.S. workforce: immigrants and U.S.-native elderly. (Source, Migration Policy Institute).

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Undocumented Immigrants

6.6 million U.S. families (with 14.6 million people in total and 3.1 million U.S. citizen children) are headed by an undocumented person.

4.9 percent of civilian labor force is undocumented, including 24 percent of farming, 17 percent of cleaning, 14 percent of construction, 12 percent of food preparation workers.

National origin of undocumented: Mexico and Latin America (78 percent), Asia (13 percent), Europe and Canada (6 percent), and Africa (3 percent).

(Source, Pew Hispanic Center).

Estimated cost of deportation of nation’s undocumented: $206 billion over five years. (Source, Center for American Progress).

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Causes of Large Undocumented Population

Disparity between U.S. labor needs and immigration policies.

Number of permanent visas for unskilled workers: 5,000.

Estimated number of undocumented entering annually: 500,000

Percentage of undocumented in labor force: men (94 percent), women (54 percent).

(Source, Pew Hispanic Center)

Globalization and NAFTA

Backlogs and Processing Delays for Persons Approved for Family-Based Visas

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What Immigrants Want

To live in security, to support families, to contribute to their country, to practice their faith.

Annual remittances to Latin America: $45 billion. (Source, World Bank).

Immigrant rallying cry: “We are America!”

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Reason for Hope: What We BelieveAll persons have equal dignity and rights, and that everybody has a “primary right” not to have to migrate

A sovereign state has a right to control its borders, but not at the expense of those who are migrating to realize their God-given rights

Sovereignty is not about denying rights, but about locating responsibility for honoring them

Sovereignty is not about about putting people outside the law, but protecting them within the law

Rights turns on human dignity, not on membership in a particular state or on a particular immigration status

Honoring rights serves the good of everybody and that this is the very purpose of government

The “common good” embraces the rights and prosperity of everybody, and not just a few or the majority in a country.

Different cultures should not be feared because culture is where people locate their deepest values

Migration presents an opportunity to unify people based on their deepest values, to build the human family.

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Produced by the Catholic Legal

Immigration Network

July 2008


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