The Church plays an important role in the case of the social adaptation of immigrants

On March 10 in Kyiv, an inter-religious round table, "Feeling the heart-beats of the immigrant: Who and what to expect from the return of Ukrainian migrant workers," organized by the Commission of the UGCC in Matters of Immigrants jointly with the Open Ukraine Fund, took place. "We put before ourselves a double purpose. First of all, to turn the attention of society to the problems of Ukrainians who are returning. Secondly, to extend the dialogue of religious, political and public leaders in relation to the decision of problems which accompany the phenomenon of immigration. The well-spread idea about the mass return of Ukrainian immigrants is now groundless. We have to show that they are needed here, because behind each person stands the concrete fate of people, children and families, the support and preservation of which is a basic priority. It is important that in the conditions of the financial crisis the connection with relatives and the homeland did not disappear.” So Hryhoriy Seleschuk, head of the Commission of the UGCC in Matters of Immigrants, said to the Department of Information. Taking part in the discussion were His Beatitude Lubomyr, Head of the UGCC, Yaakov Dov Bleich, main rabbi of the city of Kyiv and Ukraine; Bishop Evstratiy (Zorya), Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate; Bishop Stanislav Shyrokoradyuk, Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine; Mikhailo Panochko, senior bishop of the Christians of the Evangelical Faith of Ukraine; Arseniy Yatsenyuk, national deputy of Ukraine and founder of the Open Ukraine Fund; and heads of state structures and civic organizations. The round table began directly with the speech of immigrants themselves in the short film "Face of immigrants," which aims to refute the most widespread stereotypes about the newest work migrants from Ukraine, which very often conflict with each other. For example: "abroad it is possible to make money easily and quickly," or "an immigrant is absolutely without rights and constantly oppressed," or "working abroad 3-4 years an immigrant will rescue the family," and "work abroad automatically destroys a family and erects unshakable walls between parents and children," and so on. Each such stereotype is no more than an attempt to simplify the very complex phenomenon of work migration in the global world. However, such attempts are doomed to failure and misunderstanding on the part of direct participants: migrants and members of their families. It is necessary to show this phenomenon in all its facets. "With the help of the film we wanted to show the courage and endurance of those immigrants who did not get lost abroad, but preserved the family, returned home, and again found themselves in Ukraine," Hryhoriy Seleschuk said. Arseniy Yatsenyuk called work migration a social illness which has not only economic but also spiritual aspects. Therefore it is hard to over-estimate the value of the Church which, together with the secular authorities, tries to address this problem. "We have to offer first a program of employment, thus so-called ‘work adaptation,’ and second, more importantly, a program of spiritual and socio-cultural adaptation," the founder of the Open Ukraine fund noted. The immigrants’ new circumstances of life "cause psychic shock, sometimes not at once noticeable, but always very important for precisely this particular human being. The pastor who meets such a person has to be very conscious of this new status which is experienced by this human soul; in fact, he should minister precisely to him/her with a spiritual and religious approach. And a good pastor pays attention to this, because indeed he wants to help," His Beatitude Lubomyr underlined.  During the round table was presented the book "To feel the heart-beats of immigrants," devoted to the question of the psychological and emotional status and challenges of immigrants and members of their families, which was written by Doctor of Psychology Andrew Lee Sulivan at the request of the Commission of the UGCC in Matters of Immigrants. The book contains practical advice for pastors who in pastoral work meet with this category of persons. A practical result of the round table was the decision to create a working group to develop legislative initiatives involving the decision of urgent problems of immigrants, which will include the representatives of state, church and civic organizations.  E-mail of the Commission: [email protected]

Information Department of the UGCC

Media-resonance about the event can be seen at these references: http://www.stb.ua/e107_plugins/videotv/videoview.php?view.11142
http://www.unian.net/ukr/news/news-304959.html
http://www.epravda.com.ua/news/49b67e531ab39/
http://ictv.ua/ukr/news_economics.php?news_id=125467
http://5tv.com.ua/news/0/167750
http://newsru.ua/ukraine/10mar2009/gastarbyter.html
http://ua.korrespondent.net/business/767847
http://photo.ukrinform.ua/ukr/current/indexa.php?asearch=TRUE&event_id=258017