Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
A simple mind and heart to reciprocate
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Paul Anthony, a Jesuit scholastic and member of the Hurtado Jesuit Community that lives with JRS UK, reflects on a recent conversation about migration.
I was fortunate to attend the session on ‘Migration Conversation’ by Br Stephen Power SJ at the Hurtado Jesuit Centre. It was very informative and the statistics presented were an eye opener. Later, we had a discussion in different groups and I was very much drawn to their sharings. Some of the participants were migrants themselves. Many shared their feelings of sentiments, and what they did with migrants and refugees. What they said was inspiring and heart touching and came from deep down themselves.
When I was in Andhra Province (one of the South Asian Provinces of Society of Jesus), I used to share more often about JRS and its mission to the novice candidates, and in my Vocation Promotion talks to them. The little knowledge I was gleamed from books and newsletters of our congregation I never had met any refugee or volunteer working in JRS. Now I am fortunate enough to be placed in the Hurtado Jesuit Community, in London, as a part of my theology studies. JRS is part of Hurtado Jesuit community’s mission, now I can meet people involved in refugee works as well as asylum seekers and refugees as well. My interaction with refugees is short but it has created a huge impact on me. Simple ‘smiles’, ‘hellos’ and ‘goodbyes’ produce ripples of happiness and joy in their faces. I am not able to advise them on legal matters but simply present myself and share the rapport of a mutual smile. My experience has been similar to that of all those who shared during the discussions, though their sharing has enriched my understanding and feelings towards refugees and migrants.
It is not qualification and experience which matter to have but a simple mind and heart to reciprocate ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’ to those who are in need. ‘When I was hungry, you gave me to eat and when I was thirsty, you gave me to drink’. People not merely long for the satisfaction of physical needs but also for emotional and relational needs. They are hungry for the food of communication and communion and thirsty to receive the water of compassion and acceptance. They desire a space to share their feelings.
The sharing was a great breakthrough and showed me how I need to respond and grow spiritually. It made me realise that the best present I could give to the refugees is my pleasure at our presence together. I have discovered ways to make others happy and to be happy myself.
God Has Blessed Me Since I Arrived in This Country
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| Diluckshun in front of JRS centre |
Diluckshun, staff member at JRS-UK, writes of his own journey and what JRS means to him.
I am Sri Lankan. I claimed asylum when I arrived in the UK on the 18th of September 1999.
My first interview for my asylum claim took place in Liverpool on 19th January 2001. After attending the interview I received a refusal letter from the Home Office. I appealed. There was no reply and my solicitor advised me to leave the matter to one side and continue my studies. My solicitor wrote several letters to the Home Office to grant me permission to work; all were refused without any explanation. After November 2004 I was reporting monthly to the immigration authorities.
My aunt, who has been my guardian since I arrived in the UK, helped me to continue my studies, including a BA in Business and Finance and Level 3 Accountancy (AAT).
I first met JRS in November 2007.
My first contact was to attend the JRS founder’s anniversary celebration. I visited the JRS office and was offered voluntary work. I worked once a week on a Thursday and managed to continue my studies.
My contacts with other asylum seekers like me have been very rewarding. I came to know a lot of their problems and we comforted each other by listening and sharing our problems. This experience made me to be a happier and a stronger person inside. I welcomed each and every individual that I met at JRS and this enabled me not to bother about my asylum status. I became very busy by getting involved with my studies, voluntary work, and other social commitments. In November 2008, I visited my solicitor and asked him to make a fresh appeal. He advised me that he will make a phone call and will find out the present work on my file, which he did. He phoned me to make an appointment to see him and bring three passport size photographs. Soon after that, when I went to report on the 11th December 2008 as usual, the officer at the desk at the reporting centre informed me that I had been granted leave to remain. When I heard the news I was so happy and praised the Lord in silence.
God has blessed me since I arrived in this country and I am really grateful to all who have helped me in many ways. I remember and pray for all asylum seekers whose cases are still pending.
I express my sincere thanks to all of at JRS for offering me a part time paid job as an assistant administrator at JRS in Feb 2009.
Finally, I got married in 2010 and now I am a father of a child.
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A Mass for Migrants & A Message for me!
St. Frances Cabrini - the Patron Saint of Migrants
Statue in St. George's Cathedral, Southwark
‘The Mass for Migrants has been celebrated every May bank holiday since 2006, when it was first introduced by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor; at the suggestion of London Citizens. The Cardinal’s call at that Mass is for a more just treatment of migrants rooted in Catholic Social Teaching. Each year since then the event has reminded London of the invaluable contribution of so many migrants to the city’s society and economy. It offers a profound witness to the Church’s insistence that the dignity of the human person is God-given and never withdrawn and reminds us of the deep resonance with refugee and asylum seekers.’ (Extract from introduction in Mass booklet)
It was my privilege to be able to be there yesterday at a packed Westminster Cathedral. Before the Mass commenced the colourful and joyful procession of different migrant communities with their banners, music and dressed in their national clothes was indeed an Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia celebration. Bishop Patrick Lynch, one of the auxiliary bishops of Southwark, concelebrated with approximately fifty priests from Westminster, Southwark and Brentwood dioceses. It was noticeable that almost a third of the priests were from outside Europe. A blessing for our Church here in England and Wales today. VIPs included mayors/mayoresses from different boroughs of London, MPs, ambassadors of various countries and representatives from other faiths and Christian denominations. But THE VIPs were the migrants, each and everyone present from all over the world not only in this great city of London but in UK. Bidding prayers were in Polish, Mandarin, Swahili, French, Portuguese, Tagalog and English, a wee taste of the languages spoken in London churches. When the Our Father was prayed each according to their own native tongue, it did remind me of Pentecost! Poignantly, given recent events in his country, the Communion anthem was performed by a Ukranian soloist.
It would not do justice to Patrick Lynch’s profound homily to try to share what he said and I wish I had a copy to write it here. He quoted strongly from Evangelii Gaudium. He highlighted two main areas: Human Trafficking and Children of undocumented migrant workers, ‘no way in and no way out’ in their plight. Hopefully those present who have the clout to do something will not turn a deaf ear. As a volunteer at L’Arche and Jesuit Refugee Services, I have no clout, but that does not exempt me from not turning a deaf ear to God’s message for me. I found myself inspired, challenged, disturbed and consoled, all at the same time as I left the Cathedral and made my way to Colnbrook detention center for my weekly visit there.
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A feeling of fear for me as a migrant in the UK
Fear! That is the feeling that was born in me when I read the new Immigration Bill laid before the House of Commons on 10th October 2013. And while it was my most ardent wish that this fear should not be well founded, alas, I felt it was! The Home Secretary herself has made the point that the Government’s Bill is to create a hostile environment for irregular migrants in the UK. But who is an irregular migrant?
On 20th July of this year, my Limited Leave to Remain expired. As advised by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), I had submitted on 20th June 2013 the required form to apply for an extension which was still on the UKBA’s site. My application being straightforward, I applied without engaging the services of a lawyer. In any case, the form advised this should not be a necessity. Besides, lawyers cost money, you know!
By the end of July, I was growing impatient, especially as no acknowledgment letter had come from the UK Border Agency. From legality to illegality!
Had I lost my accommodation during that period – because my landlord wanted to take possession of his house, because I was no longer at ease in that place… whatever reason, had I lost my accommodation, what would I have done? Recourse to homelessness perhaps, seeing that this parliamentary Bill requires prospective landlords to check the immigration status of any prospective tenant, I may not have been accepted.
Of course the Government will tell you that you have the immigration status you had prior to your application being decided, but how would your prospective landlord know that? Besides, with the Go Home vans and text messages encouraging people to leave, a climate of distrust is forming around migrants. So, in my case, with no acknowledgment letter, how also was I to convince my employer to trust that I had really submitted my application?
Four months later, the UKBA finally returned my application. I had used the wrong form, they advised. It took FOUR months to make such a decision! It was not obvious to me on the new website they directed me which form I needed to use. I contacted solicitors. Now being illegal – through no fault of my own - I could either appeal, or apply outside the rules. I decided not to do this and chose to go back to my country of origin.
But that is because I had that choice to go back. Some people do not have that freedom, but they will have no choice as the new Bill only allows for appeals in limited circumstances.
And let’s say you want to go back? Leaving the UK became a nightmare. There being no direct flight from the UK to the Ivory Coast (my country), I had to transit via France, which would not let me transit as my Limited Leave to Remain had expired. My explanations that the French Consulate is OK for me to transit through as I would not be leaving Charles de Gaulle airport, and besides, I would only be at the airport for 45 minutes, fell on deaf ears... Then I thought Eurêka! I will get British immigration involved! They will be so pleased that an immigrant is choosing to leave the UK that they will back me up, seeing that they have also told me the same thing the French Consulate had advised. Nope! Furthermore, they did not want to see me. So I decided again to book another flight leaving several days later and I left the UK.
Which brings my frustration back to this new parliamentary Bill. For what purpose is this Bill being introduced apart from what seems to be pandering to one part of the UK population? General elections are in 18 months and perhaps the Government needs to be seen to be doing something. But why the pretence? There’s so much work to do! Clearing the immigration decision backlog maybe? Doing something regarding the research done by the London School of Economics in 2009, which showed that migrants working in the black economy contribute £3 billion to the economy? And don’t get me started on the exploitation of migrants here in the UK (a bedroom in a shed, anyone?), all because of the climate of mistrust Government policy on immigration creates!
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Not Just Another Statistic
Thirty seven years, or so we are told, is the time it will take to clear the backlog of immigration cases. Thirty seven years if we continue work at the current rate and if no new cases are filed.
This is just the sort of statistic that both shocks me as a reader and numbs me. How can I take on this statistic when so many others about other dreadful issues follow in its wake? What can I possibly do about a 37 year waiting list?
Writing a letter each week to a man I know nothing about, in a detention centre I can hardly imagine, is a seemingly negligible response, and yet through the pen-friend service that JRS operates, I am able to reach out, to touch and be touched in a way that makes a statistic come alive.
No discussion of politics, religion or individual cases is permitted and every letter is scrutinised by staff at the centre so each week I write about life in rural England, MOR TV, festivals and celebrations. I write in faith that my commentary will be accepted by a stranger. Every month or so I am humbled to know, through the medium of an exuberant, greetings card made in the art class at the detention centre, that my gesture has been graciously received.
Because of this one to one contact, I've found myself reading, thinking and praying about refugees, those who serve them in the host country, those they leave behind in their home countries. I've found myself getting a sense of the scale of the problem, but rather than being overwhelmed as by dry statistics, I discover greater depths of compassion and am moved to immerse myself more fully. Let us hope that by the Grace of God another thirty seven years of letter writing for this particular cause will not be needed.
