(Photo: AP Images / Rodrigo Abd)Illegal immigrants, on their way to the U.S., pray at a migrant shelter in Arriaga, southern Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. U.S. and Mexican authorities told The Associated Press they have seen a dramatic drop in the number of Central American immigrants detained, indicating that factors in Mexico, not just U.S. border security, are contributing to the slowdown in illegal immigration to the U.S.
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Christian leaders from around the world discussed the issue of migration, its effect on the church, and how the church should respond to migrants this week during a conference held in Lebanon.
"Migration is a fact of life. It is as much an instinct to survive as it is an inevitable consequence of globalization,” declared participants of the Public Hearing on Migration and the Changing Ecclesial Landscape, April 15-16, in Beirut, Lebanon.
“We can neither turn our backs on it, nor control it," the statement read. "Migrants are not commodities, illegal aliens or mere victims, they are human beings."
In an increasingly mobile world, people leave their countries in search for safety, freedom or a better life, resulting in churches faced with new members of different traditions and values, or a new religious community in their neighborhood, according to co-organizer the World Council of Churches.
During discussions on how the church should deal with migrants, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, said, “Welcoming the stranger is not optional for Christians. Nor is it conditional.”
Kobia called for the church to strengthen its hospitality in an “era of new forms of migration,” while being an “advocate and defender of the right of people to move freely within their own nation and leave their home and live elsewhere in search of their God given right to life with dignity,” he added.
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Meanwhile, Dr. Prawate Kid-arn, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, reminded the audience of the 54 Burmese who died last week from suffocation in a truck that should have smuggled them into Thailand.
"Migration is a courageous expression of an individual's will to overcome adversity and live a better life,” Kid-arn said.
He promoted providing legal channels of migration and employment that meets national standards as the "most effective way to prevent trafficking.”
Earlier in the conference, Lebanese Christian students shared their perspectives on the migration problem in their country. Students shared about their attachment to their homeland while being faced with the question that all university graduates are confronted with: “What am I staying here for?”
Topics raised during the public hearing this week is being taken up at the Global Ecumenical Network on Migration (GEM) on April 17-18. The event brings together regional ecumenical organizations, churches and Christian agencies working on the issues around the world.
Both the public hearing and the GEM meeting are co-organized by the WCC and the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and hosted by the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia in Beirut, Lebanon.
