GMA News.TV, 08/29/2008
MANILA, Philippines — Poverty in the home country continues to lead people in the Asian region, including the Philippines, to migrate to wealthier countries, a senior Catholic bishop lamented on Thursday.
Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences Secretary General Archbishop Orlando Quevedo said poverty and underdevelopment have been "common characteristics" of the Asian countries of origin.
"For the poor the greener pasture is certainly always on the other side of the fence," Quevedo said in his welcome address before delegates to the International Catholic Migration Commission and FABC consultation on migration in Makati City.
Quevedo also pointed out that the Asian region has witnessed the most movements of migration to Europe and the Americas.
Yet, he said "migration is then not so much a sign of luxury as a sign of poverty – even an imperative of poverty."
He added that the funds Asian migrant workers remit to their home countries prop up the local economy and "make up a significant part of their (country's) national budgets."
He noted the globalizing aspect of economic development "where economic borders are literally set aside by the 'free market' and its economic process; where poor countries cannot really compete with the big and powerful; where the freedom of economic processes sorely need juridical and ethical norms for the benefit of poor countries; where access to the whole global village has become actual for poor people because of the tools of social communication but where physical and economic access is also now being very much restricted because of social, economic, and cultural reasons, often expressed through migration laws."
"How the Catholic social principles of the universal destination of created goods and of solidarity are applicable in this kind of global village has become a major consideration," he said.
He called on the participants to explore in their discussions possibilities that would help Asia's poor who leave their countries in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families.
The two-day consultation has participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia and Laos, Hong Kong, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
CBCP Commission on Migrants and Itinerant Peoples Chairman and Maasin Bishop Precioso B. Cantillas, SDB read the message of Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations at Geneva.
In his message, Tomasi said the concern that the Church shows on the plight of migrants and refugees is a solid manifestation of our Catholic faith.
"Asia continues to produce refugees from war-torn countries like Iran and Afghanistan and from other countries troubled by internal conflict like Myanmar," Tomasi said.
He said "charity is the best expression of solidarity" as "Justice demands that richer and more organized countries help poorer ones."
But he added "burden-sharing has to be completed with a human touch."
"The services provided by Churches, the International Catholic Migration Commission and similar organizations, not only deliver immediate aid and practical help for health, resettlement, employment, psychological support, etc. but they also empathize with the persons whom they reach out thus providing extra strength for them," he said.
Tomasi said the Catholic Church has "a clear sign to engage in the service of all uprooted people and to project into current debates a more comprehensive and substantive dimension, the social doctrine of the Church." - GMANews.TV
