wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Migrants, too, have human rights

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 12/1/2008 3:34:46 PM

>MIGRANTS, TOO, HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS

The myth according to which host countries are "victims" of migration  needs to be challenged, as in fact their economies benefit from the  exploitation of migrant's work.

This was one of the points made at a meeting convened mid-November by the  World Council of Churches (WCC) in New York City, in which speakers  condemned the trend to treat migrants as commodities and stressed that  migrants are human beings, created in the image of God.

Migration was the primary theme of the WCC's 16-21 November United Nations  Advocacy Week, during which some 120 representatives of churches,  ecumenical organizations and networks from all over the world discussed  priorities and strategies for church advocacy at the UN and in their own  countries.

Participants discussed the threats to the human rights of migrants, the  theological imperative to welcome strangers and practical measures which  churches can take.

While today's global economy is characterized by a growing mobility of  goods and capital, many states put heavy restrictions on workers,  particularly low-skilled labour coming into their territory. At the same  time, poor living conditions oblige many people to leave their countries  of origin.

Dr Theodor Rathgeber of the German Forum for Human Rights, who identified  "asymmetrical economic conditions" and policies putting the global South  at a disadvantage as main causes for this form of migration, challenged  participants to fight the myth that host countries were "victims" of  migration. Rather, their economies were benefiting from the exploitation  of migrants, he explained.

>Theology of diversity

Theologically, the need to care for the strangers was founded in the  parable of the Good Samaritan. With this story about a foreigner rescuing  a man forsaken by his countrymen and fellow believers, Christ rules out  xenophobia, "as the unexpected help comes from the culturally and  religiously other", summarized Niki Papageorgiou, who teaches Sociology of  Religion at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

She added that the church has a "dynamic and radical" discourse on  unconditionally welcoming the culturally and religiously other. However  that discourse did not necessarily reach the believers. Churches needed to  support their theology of diversity with actions at the local level, such  as social services and dialogues between natives and migrants, Papageorgiou  said.

John Nduna, director of the alliance of Christian aid agencies ACT  International, voiced concern that refugees should not be confounded with  economic migrants: "Refugees are forced to flee from their homes in order  to save their lives. In most situations returning to their homeland is not  an option."

Looking to a future in which climate change will unfold more and more,  participants anticipated a sharp rise in displacement and ensuing  conflicts as large areas for example in Bangladesh, the Nile delta and  around the Sahara will become uninhabitable and millions of people will be  pushed into areas traditionally occupied by other populations.

Rev. Baranite Kirata from Kiribati explained that people of this island  nation in the Pacific had looked for work abroad already in the past, but  always with a longing to come back home one day. With the atolls bound to  disappear as the climate changes ever more significantly, his people  experienced a feeling of spiritual loss, too, he said.

>International Convention on Migrants' Rights

The rights of migrants were also the centre of visits which the participant s of the advocacy week paid to missions of nine United Nations member  states in order to promote the International Convention on the Protection  of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Of 39 countries that have ratified the convention so far, none is a host  country in the developed world. "No other international convention shows  such a split between developed and developing countries," said William  Gois, regional coordinator of the Migrant Forum Asia.

None of the 27 missions representing European Union member states agreed  to a meeting on the topic of the convention. Other missions reacted more  positively to the ecumenical commitment to have the convention signed,  ratified and implemented. For example the representative of the Philippines  told his visitors he would like to cooperate with the WCC in finding more  countries that are willing to put the convention on their agenda.

Seta Hadeshian, director of Diakonia and Social Justice at the Middle East  Council of Churches, explained that the convention, which in the Middle  East has been ratified only by Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Turkey, was "the  only available international instrument able to protect domestic workers"  in the region.

The rights of millions of migrant female workers were therefore unprotected , she added, while abuse and violence against them were rampant, leading  for example in Lebanon to numerous suicides and accidental deaths of women  trying to flee from the house of their employer.

Challenging Christians to recognize the image of God in each stranger,  Papageorgiou reminded them that "all people [are included] in the body of  Christ."

WCC work on Migration: http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3123

>United Nations Advocacy Week of the WCC:
>http://unaw.oikoumene.org

Press release on a 20-23 November consultation of African and European  churches on migration:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/dealing -with-migration-me.html

Additional information:

Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.