"Dignity Has No Borders": Jesuit Migration Network meets to foster hospitality on a regional level

 
With the theme «Dignity has no borders,”  the 16th annual -Jesuit Migration Network of Central America and North America meeting, held in Mexico City from Oct. 9-11, gathered almost 100 Jesuit network partners from 12 countries who work on migration issues.
The group met to analyze and reflect on common migration issues and attempt to answer the question: How do we accompany and promote the human rights of migrants in the current context?
«Given the many obstacles that migrants currently face on their journey, it is important to step outside our immediate contexts and engage with other regional partners on the issue,» according to Kristen Lionetti, policy director of the Office of Justice and Ecology for the Jesuits of Canada and the U.S.
Attendees included people working on migration in the Jesuit network from a variety of areas: researchers, advocates and direct service and pastoral providers. Lionetti coordinated the U.S. and Canada delegation, which included participants from Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Canada; JRS/USA; Kino Border Initiative; Ignatian Solidarity Network; University of Detroit Mercy; University of San Francisco; Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University New Orleans; Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic in Los Angeles; Loyola University Chicago; and University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Kristen Lionetti, policy director of the Office of Justice and Ecology at the Jesuit Conference

The meeting is important, says Lionetti, because migration is not just a national issue, but a regional and global issue. “It’s an opportunity for institutions in the network that have common missions, concerns and goals to come together from different points of view for collective analysis and reflection.”
There are a number of pressing migration issues in the region. People fleeing violence and poverty in Central America are facing rejection in both the U.S. and Mexico. In addition to an increasing number of Central Americans seeking refuge in Mexico, the country is also receiving deportees from the U.S. and trying to figure out how to help them reintegrate. Meanwhile, U.S. policy — both increases in detention and deportation and decisions it’s making on temporary protections like DACA and Temporary Protected Status — are being felt throughout the region. Network partners have seen this in Canada with thousands arriving to their border in search of protection. The Kino Border Initiative, on the U.S.-Mexico border, reported a 143% increase in deportations of migrants away from their U.S. citizen children in 2017 compared to 2016.
The network shares migration trends like these and looks for ways to better respond collectively. It is also an opportunity to formulate common goals and concrete actions for the next year.

“The proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border gets a lot of attention,” says Lionetti, “but there are many ways in which countries are seeking to restrict migration or putting up barriers that don’t allow people who are forced to migrate to access the international protection they should be entitled to.”
One initiative the network is working to promote is the articulation of the different Campaigns for Hospitality that have been launched in Latin America and the Caribbean, Canada and the U.S., as well as in Europe (specifically, in Spain). These campaigns illustrate one way that the Society of Jesus is working across borders to foster a culture and communities that are more welcoming and hospitable to migrants and that calls upon governments to develop policies that reflect this.
Post originally adapted from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States website.