Migration Crisis in Europe and Christian Mercy: A Story of One Parish

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2020-52-4/20-28

Abstract

The article, using Italy as an example, analyzes the social work of Catholic organizations, addressed to refugees and immigrants. It is based on the author's field material, collected in one of the Catholic parishes of Bologna. The goal of the article is to analyze the attitudes to the migration situation in Europe from the part of its largest denomination – the Roman Catholic Church – and to study forms of social service of Catholic organizations among refugees and immigrants. The significance of the topic is determined by the fact that now many European states face the challenge of adaptation of refugees and immigrants and their integration into the host society. They are looking for acceptable ways of this integration. The laws that regulate immigration and stipulate the status of a refugee and an immigrant often provoke heated political debates. The secular discourse about the migration crisis, which usually emphasizes the rights of one of the sides, differs from the religious discourse. The position of Christian organizations of Europe consists first of all in the compassion to refugees and migrants and in the hope to possibly improve their fate. The migration crisis in Europe made European Christian organizations more visible and contributed to deprivatization of religion in a highly secular society. Christian organizations in general and Roman Catholic parishes and charity structures in particular became important actors in building relations with migrants and integrating them into the European society.

References

1. Babynina, L.O. (ed.). 2018. Budushchee Evropy: global'nye vyzovy i vozmozhnye otvety [Future of Europe: Globale challenges and possible responses]. Moscow: Institut Evropy RAN.
2. Bretherton, L. 2010. Christianity and Contemporary Politics: the Conditions and Possibilities of Faithful Witness. Chichister (UK), Malden (USA): John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
3. Darrell Jackson and A. Passarelli. 2018.Mapping Migration. Mapping Churches' Responses. Europe Study. Geneva: Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe. World Council of Churches.
4. Hanley, L.M., B. Ruble, and A.M. Garland (ed.). 2008. Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities. Renegotiating the City. Washington, D.C., Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
5. Horstram, A. and Jin Heon Jung (ed.). 2015. Building Noah's Ark for Migrants, Refugees and Religious Communities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
6. Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (ed.). 2007. Religion and Social Justice for Immigrants. New Brunswick (New Jersey), London: Rutgers University Press.
7. Gromyko, Al.A. and V.P. Fedorova (ed.). 2017. Evropa XXI veka. Novye vyzovy i riski [Europe in XXI sentury. New challenges and risks]. Moscow, St.Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriia.
8. Juergensmeyer, M. (ed.). Religion in Global Civil Society. Oxford, New York, a.o.: Oxford University Press.
9. Kitinov, B.U. 2016. Tropy Evropy: migranty v poiskakh identichnosti [Trails of Europe: Migrants in search of identity]. Sovremennaia Evropa 5: 123–131.
10. Kivisto, P. (ed.). 2005. Incorporating Diversity: Rethinking Assimilation in a Multicultural Age. Boulder (Colorado): Paradigm.
11. Lunkin, R.N. 2016. Missiia miloserdiia: sotsial'noe sluzhenie tserkvei [Mission of mercy: Social service of the Cherch]. Sovremennaia Evropa 4: 154–158.
12. Lunkin, R.N. 2017. Evropeiskie khristianskie tserkvi pered litsom migratsionnogo krizisa [The European Christian Church in the face of a migration crisis]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Series 25: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia i mirovaia politika 2: 37–64.
13. Lunkin, R.N. 2018. Rol' khristianskikh tserkvei Evropy v razreshenii sotsial'no-politicheskikh krizisov [The role of Christian churches in Europe in resolving of of social and political crises]. Dissertatsiia na soisk. uchenoi stepeni doktora politicheskikh nauk. Moscow.
14. Malashenko, A. and S. Filatova (ed.). 2005. Religiia i globalizatsiia na prostorakh Evrazii [Religion and globalization in the vast expanses of Eurasia]. Moscow: Moskovskii Tsentr Karnegi.
15. Mavelli, L. and E.K. Wilson (ed.). 2017. The Refugee Crisis and Religion. Secularism, Security and Hospitality in Question. London, New York: Rowman & Littlefiled.
16. Potemkina O.Iu. 2015. “Evropeiskaia povestka dnia po migratsii” – novyi povorot v immigratsionnoi politike? [European agenda on migration – Is it a new tern in migration policy]. Sovremennaia Evropa 4: 28–40.
17. Rajendra Tisha, M. 2017. Migrants and Citizens. Justice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration. Grand Rapids (Michigan): William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
18. Stepanov V.V. (ed.). 2015–2016. Migratsiia i migranty v Rossii i mire: opyt sotsial'no-antropologicheskikh i etnograficheskikh nabliudenii [Migration and migrants in Russia and in the World: Experience of social, anthropological and ethnographical reserch]. Moscow: IEA RAN.
19. Timani Hussam S., Jorgenson Allen G. and A.Y. Hwang. 2015. Strangers in This World: Multireligious Reflections on Immigration. Minneapolis (Minnesota): Fortress Press.