The migrants’ phenomenon presents a huge dilemma in the

Rev. Fr. Jojo C. Gonda

Mission and Migration: Realities Impact of Migration Migrants in Mission Batangas, Muling nag uwi ng Karangalan Beauty and Challenge in Participating in the Mission of Christ Two Reflections

 Church pastoral program. The invitation to particularly do mission in their lives and situations is rather complex and extremely complicated. It may sound and look simple but there are so many twists and turns, so many angles and contours that need to be looked into and addressed.

As it had always been stated, migration of Filipinos came as a response to the growing poverty in the country. This is further coupled with lack of job opportunities or low paying jobs wherein it was difficult to raise even a small family of four. This is an area that the Church sometimes feels helpless. Try as she can, she always ends up short and at times unable to address the problem.

There is the family issue. More and more Filipinos live for abroad while leaving behind the husband or wife and the children. Or both parents go abroad and leave behind their children to surrogate parents or relatives. Then, we ask, what kind of family life apostolate do we or can we offer these people when families are physically and even psychologically separated? Whether we like it or not, there will be long term effects on the couple’s relationship and most especially on the children who lose their primary relationship at a very young age. The youth apostolate must concretely face this issue. Moreover, it is not uncommon that we witness infidelities in marriage on one party or both parties that lead to eventual separation and/or choice of a new partner. We could just imagine the effects of these realities to the children.

Furthermore, we have to deal with the changes in the value system brought about by more money, cultural influences from other countries, media and globalization. It’s a pity to see the slow and painful surrender of the values of close family ties, of simplicity, of generosity, of friendliness, of religiosity, of communication and dialogue, and many more by many Filipino migrants and their families.

Government institutions appear to be heralding what the migrants are doing for the economy. On the other hand, poor services, minimum support and the apparent lack of concern for their difficult struggles dominate their reality. The government continues to encourage Filipinos to go abroad because there are no jobs available here. Behind this projected good intention, they actually cannot address the main issue of poverty because this problem is more often than not, rooted in gross corruption from the highest to the lowest level of the government!

The business sector seems to provide hope by giving chances and opportunities to migrants and their families to invest and use their hard earned money properly. Some sincerely offer good and realistic programs. However, much of the time, they consider migrant Filipinos as sure market to enhance their businesses and thereby multiply their income without due consideration to the extremely difficult situation they experience while working abroad.

Then there are so many Filipinos who suffer from grave abuses in the working situation: sexual and physical abuses, poor working conditions, non-payment of salaries, given a bad job different from what he or she signed in his or her contract, passports and visas taken away from them, non-repatriation, unprotected by law, unjust imprisonment and many more!

On top of all these, there are a lot of illegal recruiters, businesses that are offering fake projects and many other people interested only in getting money from helpless and poor Filipinos searching for a better life abroad. Just like the drug menace in our society, these evil people continue to pry on innocent Filipinos.

The Church wants to offer a realistic pastoral program for these people. But with so many pastoral concerns and issues, so many priorities of bishops and priests, religious and lay leaders, this unique and challenging pastoral need remains in the sideline, if not in the bottom line. It seems that this obvious issue is taken for granted. Moreover, we cannot directly address the issue because a pastoral program for migrants demands that all the matters mentioned above are too multifaceted that it becomes difficult to start from somewhere.

These pastoral limitations do not in any way limit our hopefulness in the midst of such great challenge. There are also plenty of migrants who not only succeeded financially but maintained their Christian and Filipino personal and family values. There are many who continue to become aware of the challenges of the issue of migration in the Church. They are laymen and laywomen who belong to migrant families. More and more priests and religious accept and face the challenge with sincere apostolic disposition. The principle: “one at a time” holds meaningfully in this pastoral context. Ultimately, we sincerely believe that God will always be there to accompany and guide us in our missionary journey of caring, evangelizing, inspiring, challenging and leading the migrants to the direction of freedom and salvation towards His Kingdom.