The sounds of traditional Mexican music greeted those in attendance for the April 13 address Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit.
Catholic priest and professor Daniel G. Groody of the University of Notre Dame spoke on a biblical view of immigration in Wiekamp Hall.
Director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture at the Institute for Latino Studies, Groody delivered the address on the invite of student activist and political science major Caitlin Worm, who contacted the IU South Bend 2010 Campus Theme Committee to recommend bringing Groody to campus.
Groody has worked at many of the border crossings between the US and México. While this border has been his primary focus he has also worked throughout Latin America and Europe, particularly the Ukraine-Slovakia boarder that marks the entrance into the European Union.
In his address Groody noted his heritage as a member of the Judeo-Christian faith as one saturated in migration. As evidence of this he cited the migration of Abraham and that of Jesus as an infant. He began his presentation by begging the question he hoped to answer: How do we think about migration from a theological perspective?
The first salient task in this pursuit, Groody said, is to define the term. A migrant has many motives.
“The Economic Migrant is one who leaves her homeland in search of a dignified life,” Groody said. “The Forced Migrant of Refugee is one who leaves out of fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, social membership, or political opinion.”
Groody pointed out that the Internally Displaced Person does not move across a boarder, but moves out of financial necessity.
The Human Traffic Victim, Groody said, is often coerced into immigrating with the promise of a respectable job. The work ends up being degrading, and often involves sex slavery.
According to Groody a conservative estimate of the current number of immigrants is 200 million, which is approximately the population of Brazil, the fifth largest nation in terms of population in the world. He also cited the fact that 95% of the population of Earth lives on ten dollars per day or less.
“Most immigrants simply have a desire to survive which is an accomplishment, as thousands of humans die tragic deaths motivated by the desire to feed their children” he said.
Groody noted that vigilantes and government enforcers of current policy often pitch border control as a way to reduce terrorism. However this group forgets that terrorist who had legally immigrated to the US committed the Sept. 11 attacks. He named capitalists as a group that calls for guest worker programs that allow them to exploit immigrants paying them barely enough to survive in the name of profit.
Church leaders and human rights activists form another group who often call for legalization and a change to the current policies.
One of the most startling aspects of these differences is the terminology used by each group. Those who call for enforcement use the term “aliens.” Capitalists use the term “workers.” And activists use the term “people.” Groody suggests that these terms reveal much about the ethics of those who use them.
Groody explained how, while his views reject the current civil laws in this country, Canada, the European Union and other nations throughout the world, he feels compelled by the natural law and divine law.
As a human and a Catholic he believes the civil laws to be in conflict with natural and divine law. That conflict reflects the injustice of these civil laws.
He expanded upon the connection between migration and Christianity by restating the gospel message: “God so loved the world that God sent Jesus into a nation of darkness to invite people to immigrate to His nation of light.”
Groody concluded by naming the true aliens as those who are so alienated from their humanness they don’t see the grand injustice perpetuated by current immigration policy in the western world.
