Guatemalan bishop gets view of migration problems from two countries
By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When he comes to the United States once or twice a year, Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri makes a point of visiting immigrants from his San Marcos Diocese in the southwestern part of Guatemala, giving him a view of two ends of the migration cycle.
There are sizable populations of people from San Marcos in Cincinnati, Richmond, Va., Los Angeles, North Carolina, Delaware and Florida, he explained during a visit to Washington for the 2008 National Migration Conference in July.
On his visits Bishop Ramazzini said he hears about the Guatemalans' troubles finding decent work, being separated from their families, functioning in a country where they don't know the language and finding too little spiritual support from the church.
"They find the work here is hard," he told Catholic News Service. "You can earn a lot of money but you have to work very hard."
Recent workplace raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, particularly worry the Guatemalan immigrants who may lack visas to work legally in the United States.
"The fear is absolutely bigger than in past years," the bishop said.
Hundreds of Guatemalans were among those picked up during a May 12 raid at an Iowa meat processing plant. The repercussions of that raid are still being felt in both Iowa and Guatemala. Most people arrested were charged with felonies and are facing months of jail time before being deported.
Meanwhile, their families in Iowa and Guatemala have lost a source of income. Because of holdups in the legal and immigration systems, some families with an arrested worker are unable to either stay in the United States or to return voluntarily to Guatemala.
During a session at the migration conference at which ICE director Julie Myers spoke, Bishop Ramazzini, president of the Guatemalan bishops' migration committee, was the first out of his seat to ask her a question.
"Are you conscious of the consequences of deportation on families and on the economies of their home countries?" he asked. Myers responded by saying the bishop was among those who disagree with a law passed by Congress and only enforced by her agency.
Well-publicized raids like that in Iowa make workers without proper paperwork more cautious, Bishop Ramazzini told CNS, and more likely to try to live "in the shadows" for fear of attracting attention.
More than 16,000 Guatemalans were deported by the United States in 2007, and through June of this year 13,000 had been expelled, noted a July 3 statement by the Guatemalan bishops' conference on "the dramatic situation of migrants." From January through June, 150 flights with deportees from the United States arrived in Guatemala, it said.
The statement called deportations from Mexico and the United States inhuman and counterproductive and called for prayer, solidarity and tangible assistance to those who are forcibly returned to Guatemala.
Still, Bishop Ramazzini doesn't expect fears of deportation to keep many people from migrating to the United States, legally or not, to send home money to their families.
"Most Guatemalans expect to return to Guatemala after working here for several years," Bishop Ramazzini said. The majority only aim to work in the United States long enough to buy a piece of real estate in Guatemala, to improve their houses there, perhaps to open a small business at home or to pay the fees for their children to attend school. Then they go back, he explained.
For such people, the fear of being caught and deported isn't enough of a deterrent to keep them from coming, he said, especially when weighed against how much of a help it can be to their families to work in the U.S. for a couple of years.
Remittances from emigrants are the second largest revenue source in Guatemala, he said, and most of that comes from workers in the United States. U.S. remittances in 2007 amounted to $4.1 billion.
Bishop Ramazzini asked U.S. Catholics to continue to be welcoming to Guatemalans and other immigrants in their churches and to support laws and programs that may make it less necessary for them to have to leave home to support their families.
Malnutrition, lack of education and lack of work opportunities plague his country, he said.
"For me, it is important to link the migration problem with the need for very deep changes in our economic and social model, to facilitate education and health services for the majority of our population," he said.
Among the problems that lead people to leave the country are that Guatemala is still feeling the effects of its 36-year civil war, even 22 years after it ended, said the bishop.
"For many people the fear that they felt during the war is still there," he said. "It's there in our culture of violence, of people imposing their will against others."
In parts of the country where the war was especially brutal, including the department of San Marcos where he lives, Bishop Ramazzini said mental health treatment programs are sorely needed.
Violence carried out by organized criminal groups, particularly drug traffickers, is worsening as well, he said. "It's getting as bad as El Salvador," which is notorious for its violent drug trafficking.
Development assistance is one course that might change things, making it possible for more people to support their families without leaving the country, said Bishop Ramazzini.
But that also must be accompanied by broad systemic changes: strengthening the government, giving young people alternatives to joining gangs, making the justice system more efficient and less corrupt, he said.
END
08/04/2008 4:31 PM ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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