With xenophobia, discrimination and misinformation against refugees and migrants on the rise worldwide, faith-based and civil society organizations can help change the narrative by sharing information about the contributions of displaced people to their host communities.
Christine Bloch, the Geneva Representative for Jesuit Refugee Service (International Office), offered this suggestion when asked what ordinary citizens and civil society can do to help forcibly displaced people in an increasingly polarized and hostile political context. Bloch, an international lawyer with global experience in human rights, international refugee law and humanitarian law, spoke at Forced to Flee, a webinar co-organized November 5 by Canadian Jesuits International (CJI).
“We have a moral obligation to offer solidarity in the world,” Bloch said, adding that faith-based organizations “have the tools to change people’s perceptions on moral grounds.”
As of mid-2024, there are between 122 to 124 million who have been forced to flee due to war, violence, persecution, and other factors, said Bloch, citing UN figures. “The numbers just keep going up,” she said.
JRS, a CJI partner present in 57 countries, is now working in an environment characterized by popularism and nationalism, polarization of societies, growing global and local inequalities, shrinking civic space, restrictive refugee and migration laws, and growing tensions between host communities and displaced people, Bloch said. Technology is also being misused to surveil and restrict the rights of forcibly displaced people, she said, adding that “countries are learning from each other” on how to adopt more restrictive asylum policies.
Fr. Augostine Edan Ekeno, SJ, a Kenyan Jesuit priest and peace practitioner, discussed the historical roots of forced displacement in Africa. Slavery was “a key historical driver” of displacement, said Ekeno, who is currently pursuing a PhD in conflict resolution and analysis at George Mason University, Virginia, in the United States.
He noted how the slave trade “led to the underdevelopment and dehumanization of Africa” and laid the groundwork for colonization. The legacy of colonialism led to numerous conflicts on the continent, people being terrorized and dispossessed of their land, and the creation of oppressive systems such as apartheid, he said.
Ekeno discussed the contemporary realities that fuel forced displacement in Africa, including political instability, civil wars, terrorism, sexual violence, external interference linked to the exploitation of natural resources, deforestation and unchecked development, among others.
He also challenged the misconception that rich countries in the West host the largest number of forcibly displaced people, citing figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees showing that sub-Saharan Africa alone hosts more than 26% of the world’s refugees.
Yolanda González Cerdeira, of ERIC (Reflection, Research and Communication Team)-Radio Progreso, a social and human rights center and CJI partner in Honduras, discussed the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on forced migration.
She cited how the recurring effects of El Nino producing extreme drought and “intensive” agro-business in western Honduras, have had a devastating impact on people’s livelihoods, public health, food security, and water availability, forcing them to leave. Rising sea levels in coastal communities are making them uninhabitable, or causing loss of productive land and livelihoods, leading to food insecurity and forced displacement, she said.
There are Hondurans forced to flee because of violence, economic insecurity, environmental degradation and direct displacement caused by mining and other natural resource exploitation. González -Cerdeira cited the plight of human rights and environmental defenders who have been killed or harassed for opposing these activities.
The webinar was co-organized by CJI with Campion College, St. Mark’s College, Regis College, and Saint Paul’s University.
