Immigration Dialogue: The Immigrant in Our Midst

As the world experiences global human migration on an unprecedented scale, rich nations struggle to curtail the incoming flood of immigrants, while poor nations suffer population loss. Migration and immigration are not new concepts, what is new are the conditions under which much of this movement occurs and how the world responds. The Society of Jesus\u27 response has been to name migration as one of its five top international priorities. In June of 2005 three faculty members from John Carroll met with representatives from over twenty national and international Jesuit Universities and social service organizations on the campus of Fairfield University to ask how Jesuit institutions might address this emerging crisis. The program, Migration Studies and Jesuit Identity: Forging a Path Forward, developed by Fairfield faculty and jointly sponsored hy The Association of American Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the Social and International Ministries Office of the United States Jesuit Conference, and Jesuit Refugee Services had the following goals: To establish collaborative relationships in migration studies, research, and advocacy. To consider academic research, traditional interdisciplinary course instruction, and experiential educational approaches such as service learning. To consider an advocacy role in helping to alleviate current injustices experienced by migrants