Let’s try an experiment. I’m going to say one word, and I want you to monitor your blood pressure. The word is “immigration”.
—Are you still okay?
I can’t think of one current political issue that gets more emotionally charged than immigration. A brief Internet search will produce a glut of forum and blog posts where the writers often angrily defend their positions using sweeping generalizations and half-truths. The latest wave of posts revolves around last week’s May Day rally in Chicago, which demonstrated on behalf of immigrant and worker rights. This year, the call from immigrants’ rights groups include legalization for all immigrant workers, equal and universal access to health care and education, the right of all workers to unionize, and others.
Some familiar chants and slogans surface between demonstrators and onlookers on both sides of the debate: “Go back to your own country!”, “We are all immigrants!”, and so on. One side wants illegal immigrants out. The other believes undocumented persons have a right to stay. So, which side is right? Are these workers, who are largely from immigrant populations, squeezing jobs from native-born U.S. citizens, or are they doing jobs that wouldn’t be filled without them? Are they a drain on our resources or contributing to the economy?
Most writers in the blogosphere would probably want you to think that there is a clear answer to the immigration question, and of course, this answer is their own. The issue is certainly more complex and multi-layered than they would have you believe. So where do we begin? Is there something we have in common to start from?
Perhaps the answer begins in a perspective the news media doesn’t often give. I don’t have a political proposal about how to most fairly reform our immigration policy. What I do have is a proposal to elevate the discussion for a moment and look at what our faith has to say. One strong thread of our Catholic teaching rests on the belief of the dignity of all people. We are not Mexican or Polish or immigrants or U.S. citizens—at least not primarily. Primarily, fundamentally, we are all human beings. We each deserve to be treated as Christ himself, whom we believe is present in everyone, regardless of legal status.
Tempting though it may be to participate in the frenzy of attacks on all sides of the Net-based debate, it is important to stop and ask ourselves: how am I being called to love the immigrant as my brother or sister? Who knows, after a deep breath and a broader perspective, we might avoid the volleys of insults and find our conversation a little more fruitful and engaging—of course we must remember that the person we’re debating is a human being too!
Catholic Connection
“Our common faith in Jesus Christ moves us to search for ways that favor a spirit of solidarity. It is a faith that transcends borders and bids us to overcome all forms of discrimination and violence so that we may build relationships that are just and loving.”
-- Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope, A Pastoral Letter Concerning Migration from the Catholic Bishops of Mexico and the United States, 2003
“Only if I serve my neighbor can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me ... Love of God and love of neighbor are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment ... No longer is it a question, then, of a "commandment" imposed from without calling for the impossible, but ... a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others.”
--Pope Benedict XVI (Deus Caritas Est, no. 18).
Reflection Question
What can you do to speak out for the rights of immigrants in your community?
