Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees

Refugees and other displaced persons face immense barriers to full inclusion in their host communities.  Faced with the twin crises of food and housing insecurity, they also live without basic health care, opportunities for education, legal support, and sustaining employment. Many have been victims of trauma and need mental health services.  Often host communities know little or nothing about the culture(s) of displaced persons, and they are thus ill-equipped to provide support. What may have begun as a compassionate response to refugees easily devolves into a xenophobic demonization of them as the “other” who are perceived to threaten the host country’s way of life.

What can Jesuit colleges and universities do in response? The Universal Apostolic Preference to “walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation and justice” compels all IAJU members to respond in solidarity, and from the heart of our shared mission. Many IAJU schools have paved the way toward this kind of solidarity through academic programs, hospitality initiatives, service-learning, and focused research, but there is much more to be done. By committing together to solidarity with migrants and refugees and better coordinating our efforts, we can respond more effectively to the needs of our sisters and brothers and extend God’s compassionate hand more faithfully to them.

1. Compendium of Best Practices for Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees. Coming soon!

2. IAJU Migration Research Directory.

3. Shared Principles for the inter-apostolic work of IAJU schools with Jesuit Refugee Service and other apostolates of the Society serving displaced persons.