RITE & REASON:How we treat migrant families suggests we have learned little
‘SOMEONE SENT by God came to Joseph during the night with the message, ‘You had better get your wife and little boy out of Bethlehem right away. Egypt would be the best place to make for. Don’t come back until I get word to you that it’s safe. Herod is sending out a search party. He’s bent on murder’!’’ (Matt 2.13,14 – Good as New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures, John Henson, O Books, 2004)
Messages such as this are brief and urgent. They come discreetly, often during the night. There is no time to lose. One must set out right away. No time to contact family members away from home.
In the Christian tradition at this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, a baby with a rich identity, son of Mary and Joseph and, most importantly, Son of God. Despite being so “well connected”, this family, from its earliest days, suffered exile, hardship and uncertainty.
When eventually the message came to say: “It’s safe now for you to go back to your own land. Those who wanted to kill your little boy have died,” (Matt 2.19-23), the family set off for home. On discovering Herod’s son had taken over as ruler, Joseph was afraid to return to Bethlehem and went instead with Mary and Jesus to Nazareth, a town in the north of Palestine.
This time of year is family time also for those women, men and children, many from faraway places, for whom Ireland is now home. For most it was not a choice. Myriad circumstances took them on the journey. For those who set out, it’s a journey without a clear destination. Many had no choice but to travel here without family members. Separation was bearable only by hanging on to the hope of finding a livelihood and being quickly joined by loved ones.
The reality for many migrants and people seeking asylum in Ireland is that Christmas 2010 continued to be an experience of living apart from family.
Affirming that “Human Rights are to be defended . . .’’ Catholic social teaching insists on “the right to ‘live in’ a united family” (Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church # 154,155), while the Constitution recognises “inalienable and imprescriptible rights” of the family. However, Ireland is the only EU member state without primary legislation on family reunification for immigrants. The process of being reunited here with family is, in effect, an obstacle course.
But it is not only undue delay or the refusal of a family reunification application, heart-rending as this is, which results in family members being kept apart. In Ireland, in accord with EU law, a child is entitled to Irish citizenship if one parent is an Irish citizen or a legally resident immigrant. The other parent may be someone whose visa is expiring or whose asylum application has failed. However, despite a child’s rights as an Irish citizen, we are now seeing the deportation of a parent whose immigration status is irregular.
Parents are forced to live in different countries, and must choose where and with whom their child will live. With no independent immigration appeals mechanism, there is little scope to challenge deportation decisions.
So, at some future time, will Ireland be confronting the issue of what was done to Irish children by the Irish government in the first decade of this millennium?
Christmas 2010 was challenging, not only for migrant but for all kinds of families.
For many, the mystery of God-among-us as part of a human family was celebrated this year under a shadow of worry and insecurity. The experience of hardship is very real, with work increasingly precarious, pay uncertain and social protections diminishing. Emigration of a family member is now a much more tangible possibility.
As Irish people, we know the cost of emigration. Referring recently to undocumented Irish in the US, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said: “The problems are horrendous. A woman rang me from Washington the other day and she wanted to attend her mother’s funeral.” (The Irish Times, November 19th, 2010)
The experience of families today – migrant and others – resonates in many ways with that of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Few are strangers to displacement, exile, hardship and uncertainty. But to be forcibly separated from family members is very painful.
It is imperative that we do our utmost to remove the barriers which prevent members of migrant families from reuniting.
Bishop Raymond Field is an Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin and chairman of the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Episcopal Conference