It is now more than a century that the Church has dedicated a day of reflection and prayer for migrant humanity, wishing to draw the attention of the faithful, and of all men and women of good will, to this portion of the people of God on their earthly journey. Recently, however, every day of the year was marked by the phenomenon of migrations or of asylum seekers: millions of men, women and children, too often unaccompanied, are confronting us: in them, forced to set out on a journey without the certainty of reaching the desired goal, we are challenged to glimpse the familiar face of the Son of God and to do each one his/her own duty.

On the one hand many situations of crisis, indeed too many, persist, along with conflicts that do not allow “escape routes” within one’s country, on the other hand, there is a growing indifference and widespread insensitivity to the arrival of so many desperate people and often even to their dying just steps away from safety. As a consequence, this human tide is relegated to inhuman peripheries, increasingly more and more removed from our attention. “How can we not see in all this the effects of that ‘culture of waste’ which endangers the human person, sacrificing men and women before the idols of profit and consumption?”, Pope Francis asked himself pointedly last Monday in a speech before the diplomatic corps.  Continue reading Migrants and Refugees Still Challenge Us →

Geneva, October 28, 2015 – During the 26th and 27th of October, 2015, the Scalabrini International Migration Network [SIMN], represented by Leonir Chiarello (Executive Director) and Mario Zambiasi (Deputy Executive Director), participated at the High Level Conference on Migrants and Cities promoted within the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at the Palace of Nations in Geneva.

Cities attract a growing number of people searching for a decent quality of life, greater employment opportunities and better benefits, and also those attempting to flee conflict, natural disasters and environmental degradation. In 2014, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations estimated that more than half the world’s population lived in urban areas and the number of inhabitants in the cities would reach 6,400 million in 2050, equivalent to 66 percent of the global population. Continue reading SIMN Participates at High-Level Conference on Migrants and Cities in Geneva →