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 Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 110, August 2009

 

Message to the members of S.E.C.I.S. gathered for their Annual Meeting in Bonn, germany, July 2009          

           

Dear Friends,  

I am pleased to send cordial greetings to you all as you assemble in Germany for the Annual Meeting of SECIS. I thank the offices of KAAD who are not only your hosts this year but have a long and continued history of supporting foreign students.

The topic that you have chosen for your discussions and deliberations under the title “Foreign students: gift or commodity?” is an increasingly important one. In fact, it was a subject about which we have been much concerned in recent years.

Nowadays student mobility is on the increase. Today there are globally more than three million young men and women on the move with a vast competition between universities and academic institutions of tertiary education. In Europe alone there are over 1.2 million of them with now 600,000 studying outside the continent.  Scholarships and exchange schemes, now with over 150,000 students, are set to double over the next decade. Student mobility has now firmly become part of the normal university milieu and by 2020 up to 20% of all students will regularly expect to spend part of their period of study in another country. Ambitious reforms are underway through the “Bologna Process” in the creation of a ‘European Higher Education AreaÂ’ by 2010 through a convergent system of levels of study programmes and degrees together with political efforts to stimulate competition and to attract a greater mobility, intra and extra. Reputations, academic influence and not least, financial benefits are all at stake. There is fierce intercontinental and continental rivalry in what many regard as a ‘commercializationÂ’ which can often fail to recognise the dignity of the human person when they become economic statistics in a global market place. This is particularly so in the areas of research which can bring profits on both a national and international scale. Today universities are seeking the best minds, not simply to educate but also to survive and develop. To some extent this has always been so, but in our present climate it is important for these institutions to always keep in mind the true purpose of  research, learning and teaching. Whilst there is no doubt that without the necessary financial backing many universities cannot develop, let alone survive, there is a real danger today that education and the students themselves can be reduced to mere economic commodities.

Your work is especially attuned to the European situation. There are already excellent programmes in place throughout the continent and to be commended is the on-going development of exchanges such as Socrates and Erasmus. The sharing of education and fees throughout the European Union has been one of the excellent areas of growth in higher education. However, many universities are consciously looking beyond the boarders of the continent in order to recruit not just the finest minds but also those who are willing to pay “full” fees, especially looking towards students from North America, China and Asia. In addition, the current global financial crisis has already begun to put pressure on the student mobility market, the effects of which - you are concerned with their pastoral care - will already be aware, bringing its own set of pastoral problems.

Clearly at the forefront must always be considered  the dignity of the student, but also their potential in doing good not only in their host country, but also their country of origin on their eventual return. Pope Benedict XVI himself has said:

“Moreover, for many young people the possibility of studying abroad is a unique opportunity to become better able to contribute to the development of their own countries and participate actively in the Church’s mission”.[1]

The more Europe opens up and expands its education market the more foreign students fall prey to be part of what is now well known as the ‘brain-drain’ from their country of origin. Our Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi speaks clearly of the commitment needed when it attests:

“migration raises a truly ethical question: the search for a new international economic order for a more equitable distribution of the goods of the earth. This would make a real contribution to reducing and checking the flow of a large number of migrants from populations in difficulty. From this there follows the need for a more effective commitment to educational and pastoral systems that form people in a ‘global dimension’, that is, a new vision of the world community, considered as a family of peoples, for whom the goods of the earth are ultimately destined when things are seen from the perspective of the universal common good.”[2]

Consequently, the Pastoral care of welcome, assistance, together with human and spiritual support offered by chaplains, pastoral agents and all those concerned with foreign students welfare is of the utmost importance.

I hope that you will also use this opportunity, whilst gathered together, to look at and explore new ways to expand your work so as to keep this specific pastoral care directed towards foreign students alive in the hearts and minds of all those who have concern for these young people at university during this particularly formative part of their lives. As higher education  expands it is important that this category of students is not forgotten.

Lastly in this year, which has been dedicated to St. Paul, Pope Benedict in his annual Message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees celebrated on 18th January meditated upon St Paul as a migrant and an Apostle to the Peoples because in

“His [St PaulÂ’s] life and his preaching were wholly directed to making Jesus known and loved by all, for all persons are called to become a single people in him. This is the mission of the Church and of every baptized person in our time too, even in the era of globalization; a mission that with attentive pastoral solicitude is also directed to the variegated universe of migrants”.[3] 

Among this group, of course, he included “students far from home”.[4]

As you embark upon your meeting, be assured of our prayers and good wishes. I am confident that your discussions will help and support this pastoral concern to which you are all directed, and that aided by the prayers of Our Lady of Europe and St Paul, the Lord will bless you abundantly in all that you do. 

 

 

X Antonio Maria Vegliò

President

 

 

 

 X Agostino Marchetto

Secretary

 


 

[1] Benedict XVI, Address to Roman University Students, 15 December 2005: cf. People on the Move, suppl. 103, April 2007, p.146,http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/december/documents/hf_ben_xvi_spe_20051215_saluto-universitari_en.html

[2] Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Erga migrantes caritas Christi, § 8, People on the Move, no. 95,  August 2004,  p. 161. 

[3] Benedict XVI: Message for the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees: St Paul, Migrant, Apostle to the Peoples, 200:http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/ messages/migration/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20080824_world-migrants-day_ en.html

[4] Ibid.

 

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