Editorial - Welcoming the stranger
19.01.2010
The more things change the more they stay the same. In many countries groups of local people welcome strangers who are immigrants, while other groups are vocal in having stringent restrictions put on these people. Fear has a lot to do with the latter attitude.
It can arise in people who want to be mono-cultural or keep the status quo. The Irish people have a long history of emigration to England, Canada, the United States and Australia to mention a few countries and the sadness and anguish that goes with it. Yet when Ireland became a focus for foreigners looking for a new start, many Irish people forgot their own bitter past and rejected these people, not wanting Ireland to change culturally.
No one anywhere in the world wants to be on the bottom rung of society, hence the hostility of some black Americans to Koreans as they came to the USA and conquered their environment. Often migrants oppose other migrants for this reason. Where one would expect sympathy they can get a strong rebuff.
This dynamic is at work everywhere as millions of people move looking for a better place to live. We have to keep in mind the Last Judgement in St Matthew's gospel (25:31-46): "Then the king will say to those on his right, 'You have my Father's blessing; come take possession of the kingdom …when I was a stranger you took me into your home…'"
Fr Gary Walker
TFE@columban.org.au
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