Migration: “Legal ways of entry into Europe must be opened and thus foreigners must be transformed into citizens”

ROME – Mother Earth, migration, death penalty, nuclear risk, among the topics of the forums on 24 October at the international meeting “The cry of Peace – Religions and Cultures in dialogue”, Promoted in Rome by Community of Sant’Egidio. From the panel on immigration the request for new humanitarian corridors and concrete acts that facilitate integration. Welcoming migrants means weaving peace. From Mexico to the Mediterranean, from humanitarian corridors in Europe to family homes in Argentina, this is the message that comes from the panel “The great opportunity: migrations and the future” within the three-day international meeting of Sant’Egidio “The cry of peace – Religions and cultures in dialogue ”(Rome, 23-25 ​​October).

The Latin American routes of human trafficking. From Centramerica comes the voice of Father Alejandro Solalinde, the Mexican priest who founded the migrant center “Hermanos en el camino” (“Brothers on the road”) and whom the narcos want dead. His refuge, five hours from the border with Guatemala, is part of that Samaritan geography of religious places where migrants can stop for a few days before leaving. Many Latin American mothers send their children away because they want to take them away from the cities to protect them from the youth gangs that bleed their places of origin with violence and revenge. “In 2021 – says the priest who has become a sentinel of human rights – there were so many Haitians, this year Guatemalan children and adolescents are increasing, but also Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, even the Chinese are passing through”.

All the horrors in different stages. Mass graves, tortured corpses, migrants kidnapped to extort money from relatives: these are some stages that mark the path towards the American dream. Another South American voice is that of Alicia Peressuti, founder of Civile Vinculos en Red, who reads the sentences of the very young victims (male, female, trans) of human trafficking and child pornography, housed in the family homes of her association. She explains: “The trafficking of human beings, sold as meat for slaughter, is linked to drug trafficking and drugs. As long as it exists, there will be no peace ”.

Hunger Tunisia and the Mediterranean Cemetery. Slaheddine Jourchi, a human rights activist in Tunisia, talks about a country shaken by strikes and protests, where inflation has reached record levels since 1984, the year of the so-called “bread riots”. The raids in supermarkets are almost daily, the end of state subsidies to bakers has joined the soaring cost of wheat. “65% of Tunisians – she says – intend to emigrate, over 90% of young people”. For the Interior Ministry, after Egypt, Tunisia (16,130) is the second nationality among the 78,440 landed in Italy from the beginning of 2022 until 24 October, followed by Bangladesh, Syria, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Eritrea . Valentina Brinis of Open Arms, who rescues migrants at sea, recalls: “Of the 680,000 people who have arrived in Europe since 2017, 2% have arrived dead or disappeared. It means 12 thousand biographies and families waiting to receive news; the figure doubles if we count from 2014 “.

The Italian mission “Mare Nostrum”. Father Fabio Baggio, undersecretary of the Vatican dicastery for the Integral Human Development Service, nods, who had just asked to shift attention from migration to migrants, “so that no one is excluded”. Brinis added that “the Italian mission Mare Nostrum, which saved 135 thousand migrants, deserved continuity and pride, while today the hand extended to others seems to deserve shame”. Meanwhile, on November 2, if no action is taken, it will be automatically renewed l‘Italy-Libya Agreementdisputed by many associations because it only causes death and suffering.

New humanitarian corridors and transforming foreigners into citizens. In giving the floor to Daniela Pompei of Sant’Egidio, Marco Damilano underlines how “political mismanagement transforms migration into emergency, the real emergency is the Mediterranean Cemetery”. New humanitarian corridors and transforming foreigners into citizens are the two indications of the Community. Pompeii says: “Eurostat has predicted that to prevent a significant decline in people of working age, Italy should have more than 200,000 new migrants a year”. In the meantime, for the first time since 1983, in 2020-21 there was a decrease in the number of foreign students in the Italian school, which joins the more consolidated number of Italian students: a trend that had been resisting for almost 30 years is reversing. .

Simplify the recognition of qualifications. “Migrants are not arms that improve GDP – he continues – but people who want to participate in our national communities and help make them better”. Hence the urgency of integration policies to allow new citizens to want to stop and build their future in Italy: simplify the recognition of educational qualifications, the provision of scholarships for professional adaptation, funds for ‘learning of the Italian language and for the professional training of young adults, the simplification of administrative procedures to ensure quick access to entry into European countries and to the health and social care system. “If the path of entry and integration is accompanied and supported, migrants are truly a great chance for our societies, they become true patriots”.

Stories of those who made it. Arrived three months ago with the humanitarian corridors, he attended the university. These are the stories of many refugees who arrived through the humanitarian corridors of Sant’Egidio – over 7 thousand from Lebanon (Syrians and Iraqis), Libya, the Horn of Africa, Lesbos and Greece, Pakistan, Iran (Afghans) and, lastly, with the Ukrainians – many of whom were present at the international meeting in Rome – had to enter. A young Afghan of Hazara origin takes the floor: “Before the fall of Kabul, I worked as a public health expert in a ministry. I arrived three months ago with the corridor from Pakistan, I managed to enroll in the master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Eastern Piedmont. I want to commit myself to contribute to Italian society ”. Finally, an appeal: “Do not forget who is in danger in Afghanistan, new humanitarian corridors are needed, I receive continuous messages from friends and colleagues who are hidden and wanted”.