Our ApostlatesIn research carried out by the SVD-IBP in 2008 meetings were arranged with several leaders of work on behalf of migrants in Irish society. The following are some of the guidelines and questions related their work.
Work with migrants needs to be analysed on the following levels:
Legal, advocacy, information on social services, action at local community level.
This may be considered from the global, EU or Irish dimension.
Legal
For global consideration cf. UN Conventions.
For EU consideration cf. progress on
Advocacy (ie. working on technical issues for policy change)
Global: Many individual NGOS and networks of NGOs
EU: ditto; RCRE (for Refugees)
Ireland: Refugee Legal Services; Immigrant Council of Ireland; Irish COuncil for Civil Liberties; Migrant Rights Centre.
Information on Social Services (differs from country to country)
Global: only applicable as a comparative study.
EU: Huge differences in quantity and quality of provision in all countires, from Portugal and Sweden which are good to Greece which is poor in this regard.
Ireland; 47 direct provision centres and 11/12 outreach centres; as well as Citizen information Centres nation wide.
RC Church (referencing its work)
Global: Undertakes initiatives resposive to immediate needs. Doing positive policy change work in all major international foum.
EU: ditto
Ireland: Pastoral approach, primarily Church Service (with minimal social justice work)
Operates on a Diocesan basis with 'nationalit priest/chaplains'. Work on advocacy level is through the Refugee and Migrant Project, Irish Bishops Commission on Justice and Social Affairs (one person).
How might JPIC workers respond to new challenges in migrancy?
"There are any amount of needs with migrants" (Michael Begley - Spiritan)
1. Decide strategically, is the response to be through:
a) a specific niche - speciality such as in the case of the Spiritans - Torture Survivors,
English Language/ict training; Vincentians - doing voter education etc. And then
resource other organisation through an outreach programme. ( Kairos looking into
this possibilty in peace and reconciliation media studies)
b) Work as part of a network (e.g. work with Integrating Ireland in local community
action; or advocacy with 'Network on Immigration Bill' etc).
c) Some combination of a) and b)?
2. What can the participating SVDs/SSpS members in the IBP bring to the issue? Do a skills
audit. (e.g. language skills; empathy people; facilitate voice of migrant community for social
justice; cultural mediation with the local authority/community; rerral people to social providers
etc)
3. Communication materials: work on appropriate communications materials 'for migrants with
migrants' - often inability of host community to interpret vibes - would create assemblies of
agreement over time.
4. NGOs for Migrants exist nationally and locally. However, some geographical areas not
covered. JPIC could fill this gap.
5. Nearly all NGOs for Migrants are engaged in policy work but very few person oriented
NGOs to deal with daily problems. JPIC could fill this gap.
6. Trafficked people is the current major migrancy issue globally; needs to be considered in
three ways i.e. ethnic/them/generic.
7. The RC Church needs to engage in a wider catechesis providing information on the
migrancy issue and create political awareness around it. Currently the official church is similar
to the general population, it doesn't 'see' that migrants settle here and have rights, for
example. Patoral response has to be two-pronged: Church services and social justice for
migrants.
Questions which need to be asked include:
How is the presence of migrants changing the face of the Church?
What can we expect of migrats in terms of their vision of Church?
No vision at Diocesan level and is the practice to integrate into tht Church or have parallel Church with own language, services?
JPIC could respond:
By ensuring that all chaplains have at least a basic knowledge of social services, i.e. 'know where to refer people'.
Dialogue with the Bishops' Conference on the role of chaplains who come from abroad. There is learning in this process for the Bishops' Conference whose response is quantitative and immediate not qualifying and stategic. There is learning for chaplains especially in not setting up, in effect, a parallel church.
Could probe deeper on how to 'blend' these 'churches'. Cultural change in the Irish Church gives a membership of older people, usually female and very traditional. Conversely migratns are younger, usually male and not traditional. Need for integrity around this process.
1. Albert Escoto: Is Filipino and works part-time with Filipino migrant workers in Dublin. His service is mostly of a pastoral nature but this often overlaps with issues related to immigration. He is able to direct their inquiries to the proper channels of information in this regard.
2. Gaspar Habara: Is Slovakian and works with 200 Slovakian migrant workers in Dublin and Kildare. These are mostly workers who are not planning to stay long-time in Ireland. His service to the Slovak community is mostly pastoral but he notes that there is no service available to introduce these workers to the Irish culture and social systems. This he identifies as a need which ought to be addressed and he tries to help along these lines as much as he can, mostly by referral.
3. Kevin Keenan: Is Irish and working with 500 Brazilians in Gort. Issues related to JPIC, especially in relation to a just and fair wage, have been addressed in the past. Kevin worked on behalf of the Brazilian community to gain their due rights in these matters when the prevalent practice in meat factories at the time (several year ago) was to treat such migrants unfairly and unjustly by paying them less than the basic wage and allowing them to work for long hours without receiving over-time pay.
One of the issues and goals of his work at present is to lobby for a change in legislation governing immigration. The first step was the cause related to reunification of families, ie. spouses who were legally employed in Ireland wished to be joined by spouses and members of their families. This cause has been successfully championed. A present issue not yet resolved is related to children who reach the age of 18 and then become illegal adults. Many have already been deported and this again causes grief to families who are legitimately employed in the country.
4. Tadeusz Durazej: Is Polish and works with the Polish and Eastern European communities in Newbridge and Portlaoise. The Polish community is fairly settled and there are already many Polish children attending school. There is a rising population of second generation Poles. At the same time there are a large number of Latvians, Russians, Slovakians, and the number of Gypsies from Eastern Europe is increasing. Apart from pastoral work, Tadeusz is engaged in the work of community integration. At a parish level information is provided in different languages in areas related to immigration and community participation, English classes.
Although the parish pastoral centre is an ideal place for people to meet and get to know each other, Eastern Europeans don't care much for public meetings. They would rather invited people to their homes and be invited by the local people. But Irish people don't have the same values in this regard. So there is a learning curve to go through in this work of integration.
5. Krzysztof Sikora: Is Polish and presently setting up a new pastoral service for immigrants living near Knock.
6. Marek Kosciolek: Is Polish and has worked with the Polish and Eastern European communities in Longford and with the diocese for a number of years already. English classes and similar services as named above are also a mark of his experience.
