World Migrants Day focuses on harnessing human potential

December 18th marks the United Nations International Migrants Day focusing on “Harnessing the potential of human mobility.” The Catholic Church's International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) supports projects around the world with that goal in mind.

Today December 18th marks the United Nations International Migrants Day. The world day aims to raise awareness and sensitivity on the many millions of people on the move either voluntarily or by force due to war, conflict, or extreme poverty. UN agencies point out that in 2020 alone there were 281 million international migrants, over three and half percent of the global population.

The theme for the 2021 annual day focuses on “Harnessing the potential of human mobility”. This means looking at how migrants can contribute to the communities they live in with their knowledge, skills, and vitality. In a tweet earlier today, Pope Francis said, “Let us look into the eyes of the discarded people we meet, let us be provoked by the faces of children, the children of desperate migrants. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by their suffering in order to react to our indifference.”

The Catholic Church's global migration agency, the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), is working to help alleviate the suffering people on the move and to help create opportunities for societies to “harness” this enormous potential from human mobility, since migrants can provide communities with needed help in all sectors of the economy.

Monsignor Robert Vitillo is ICMC Secretary General and spoke to Vatican News about the importance of this World Day and this year's theme in particular which puts the focus on the great contributions migrants can provide to their transit or destination societies. He notes that too often, migrants are only seen as a burden, rather than a potential help to societies in which they can contribute their skills and move societies forward with renewed energy and optimism.

Recalling the Christian perspective on migration, he pointed out that the Holy Family was a migrant family and that the migration of peoples has been a reality of human civilization since time immemorial. At the same, ICMC is well aware of the need to handle the crisis situations there are around the world, providing emergency help and trying to stop the trade in human trafficking.

Thaddeus Jones
Source: vaticannews.va