On April 18, 2024, the 23rd edition of the Annual Report of Centro Astalli, the Jesuit Refugee Service Italy (JRS),[1] was presented in Rome, in the evocative setting of the General Congregation Hall of the Society of Jesus. The text shows through data and comments the activities carried out in 2023 in favor of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy who have turned to the different services. About 11,000 were accompanied in Rome and 22,000 throughout the whole national territory, with offices in Bologna, Catania, Grumo Nevano (Na), Vicenza, Padua, Palermo and Trento. These thousands of people are supported according to the JRS style, which can be summarized by the three verbs applied by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, its founder: accompany, serve and defend. People come first and foremost, with a name, their own history, with their hopes and desires, but above all with dignity, as noted in the Vatican document Dignitas Infinita: “It is therefore always urgent to remember that ‘every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance’.”[2]
Accompany, Serve and Defend
The Report is divided into four sections. For some years now, the three verbs that form the heart of the JRS mission have also become the headings of the first three sections of the Annual Report; a fourth is devoted to networking.
In the Accompany section, first-level services are presented, among them, the response to food needs. More than 67,000 meals were distributed in Rome at the historic canteen in Via degli Astalli, the first center of the nascent service in 1981. The increase was about 45 percent over the previous year, when 46,000 meals were distributed. In Palermo, in the heart of the Ballarò district, more than 12,000 breakfasts were distributed (an increase of about 30 percent). In all locations nearly 1,200 people received accommodation with collaboration from public agencies or Church bodies. More than 1,000 became students in the Italian language school, an indispensable tool for integration in Italy. About 2,500 people were visited by volunteer doctors in three network locations (Rome, Catania and Palermo). In addition there were another 2,300 users of Rome’s SaMiFo (Salute Migranti Forzati) of ASL Roma 1, with which a collaboration has been active for years. They provided about 10,000 specialist healthcare visits. This first set of numbers shows that 2023 saw an increase in asylum seekers and refugees with socio-health needs, indicating a more marginalized, tired and suffering group.
The Serve section records the projects implemented during the year. There were 18 in the city of Rome alone, with a specific focus on training and job placement. There were many bodies – including foundations and private organizations – that, through funding, support activities in favor of refugees. This allows those involved to integrate existing arrangements with the public services that, sometimes, due to scarcity of resources or political choices that favor some actions over others, are not sufficient to cover expenses. Support from private individuals in some cases directly reaches people in need with subsidies for rent or utility payments, especially in this time of rising energy prices, but also serves to explore new avenues. The latter aspect in particular offers an opportunity to build and open through the social work sector, through creativity and imagination, avenues of hope where there seemed to be no possibility of doing so.
The section Defend presents the cultural activities, national and international awareness-raising and advocacy, which Centro Astalli carried out in 2023 in collaboration with other JRS offices in Europe and around the world. In Italy, advocacy for refugees was carried out first and foremost through the various territorial offices, as described in the section Building Networks. There have also been numerous instances of collaboration that Centro Astalli has had with various associations and Church bodies, as well as with members of other Christian denominations and of other religions.
The latter aspect is today, in our view, more central than ever. Dialogue between religions is certainly a way to build peace. Pope Francis wrote in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (FT), “The different religions, based on their respect for each human person as a creature called to be a child of God, contribute significantly to building fraternity and defending justice in society. Dialogue between the followers of different religions does not take place simply for the sake of diplomacy, consideration or tolerance. In the words of the Bishops of India, ‘the goal of dialogue is to establish friendship, peace and harmony, and to share spiritual and moral values and experiences in a spirit of truth and love’”(FT 271).
Centro Astalli also has been present in consultation with the Asylum and Immigration Table and the Migrant Minors Table, in order to support and also propose more forward-looking policies, which are often unheeded.
To give an idea of this Report, we can be helped by the opening words of Pope Francis’ message for the 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2023: “The migratory flows of our times are the expression of a complex and varied phenomenon that, to be properly understood, requires a careful analysis of every aspect of its different stages, from departure to arrival, including the possibility of return.”[3]
In particular, we would like to emphasize the complexity of the migration phenomenon, which always, but especially with the approach of elections, risks being simplified or, worse, misused for propaganda purposes.
Critical Issues in the Management of Asylum Seekers in Europe
On April 10, 2024, the European Parliament approved the new Pact on Migration and Asylum.[4] In a joint note,[5] on April 9, 2024, before the vote, Centro Astalli and other JRS Europe offices expressed opposition to this Pact, highlighting the real critical issues in dealing with the migration phenomenon: the outsourcing of borders, rejection of access, lack of an effective sea rescue policy, and the need for accelerated procedures at the border. “Complexity” is not synonymous with “complication.” We do not address what is considered the migration problem by physically “removing” people from European soil, or channeling them through legislation that does not respect rights, but by eliminating the causes of forced migration and ensuring access to global citizenship for all. Instead, we have been witnessing over many years the creation of legislative and bureaucratic obstacles to the migratory paths of people who set out on their journeys, fleeing from wars, crisis areas, regions transformed by climate change, or simply – if one can call it that – from the global injustice that has increased inequality. Decisions by individual states and the restrictions to fast-track procedures at borders put at risk the rights of many people who, increasingly vulnerable, arrive in the territories of the European Union.
This year, within the Annual Report, a section was also dedicated to the JRS European Network, which today extends to 23 countries, with offices that seek to respond to the needs of different national contexts, while continuing to uphold the fundamental mission of JRS: to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and those forcibly displaced. As a JRS network, it is important to address the migration phenomenon together in a purposeful and supportive manner, working together in individual countries in the European Union to make the right to asylum effective, listening to the voices of refugees. Only if individual countries and Europe as a whole make solidarity a cornerstone can we have a more inclusive and integrated continent. This is the path that JRS Europe has been advocating since 1992, because, as David Sassoli said in a video message addressed to Centro Astalli in 2021, “as Europe we have the duty to enhance that concept of global citizenship and solidarity that underlies an open and inclusive society.”[6]
Some of the figures in this European theater are important: the number of people reached was 184,000, while beneficiaries who received assistance for their livelihood were 56,817. This number, in particular, is influenced by the many Ukrainians who have fled war. But there are also many, too many refugees in Europe who are still forced to turn to low-threshold services because they are in need. Finally, it is worth mentioning the high number of people – almost 20,000 – who have obtained help for their mental health or psychosocial support. This figure is indicative of the presence of people made vulnerable by conflicts which are increasingly numerous among the migrant population, but also because of the lack of an effective policy of reception and solidarity.
The Complexity of the Migration Phenomenon in Italy
The year 2023 has been a difficult one for those who have sought and obtained international protection in Italy, but above all the situation is even more precarious for those who have not obtained it. Access to primary care services (canteens, showers, clothing distribution, outpatient clinics), as mentioned earlier, has increased in all the regions where Centro Astalli operates. More and more refugees are living on the streets or as asylum seekers they are living in large Extraordinary Reception Centers for whom minimum requirements for a dignified life for themselves and their children are often not guaranteed. In Palermo, volunteers have found an increase in a high measure of poverty; in fact, access to first-level services has doubled. In Trento, access to dormitories has been strengthened, and 177 homeless asylum seekers have been given shelter. In this area, the situation of people arriving via the Balkan route is critical. Although they have formalized their application for international protection, they cannot quickly access institutional reception facilities and begin their path to inclusion.
Given the large number of arrivals, the reception system does not always offer an adequate response. On the contrary, such a system runs the risk of turning out to be a space where to place people who are reduced to numbers, rather than a pathway toward inclusion, with planning more characterized by suspicion of people’s genuineness. In recent years, for example, there has been an increase in the arrivals of vulnerable people, those with objective conditions that make them fragile, such as the elderly, minors and pregnant women. Consider that out of a total of 235 people received by the Centro Astalli in Rome, one in six had been a victim of torture and violence, and one in five had a health vulnerability. But there is also a more hidden vulnerability, often linked to traumas experienced and not yet processed. In order for it to emerge and be directed toward a path of care, attention and an adequate reception in terms of space and modalities are needed. Otherwise there is a risk that these individuals will inevitably remain vulnerable people, making their path to inclusion increasingly difficult.
Therefore, for Centro Astalli, accompaniment toward inclusion continues to be a priority. In 2023 the Centro pursued this goal through projects aimed at job training; in Rome alone almost 700 people were accompanied. In the projects there has been a focus on the psychophysical and social health of women; more than 1,000 of them have undergone treatment. More than 300 of whom are survivors of gender-based violence; more than 400 have been oriented to territorial services, and about 100 single-parent households have been assisted.
But accompaniment to inclusion also means being attentive to the needs that arise along the way. In 2022 services were opened to counter the digital divide, to support people who have difficulty accessing the Internet and the many online government services. These problems continued in 2023, because often many migrants – like many senior citizens, for example – have difficulty both accessing the net and navigating within it.
In 2023 Centro Astalli sought to address the emerging need for financial inclusion by facilitating the opening of basic bank accounts for salary credit, or through financial literacy courses. The right to housing still remains very difficult for many such migrants. The housing paths of those exiting the reception system are increasingly problematic, often exacerbated by discrimination. In this context, short-term renting for tourism purposes, especially in large cities, has in recent years been a factor in aggravating the widespread housing shortage. To support this need as well, “housing counters” have been set up in various locations, aimed at personalized support in the search for housing for those who already have a residence permit and a work contract, conditions that are increasingly not a guarantee of success.
We believe at the same time that raising awareness and educating the younger generation is also central. During 2023 Centro Astalli met with a great many young people through the two projects, Windows: Stories of Refugees and Encounters: Paths of Interreligious Dialogue. Over 31,000 students from 1,500 classes in 19 cities were reached; 50 refugees and 40 witnesses from various Christian denominations and other religions were involved. These numbers give an idea of the extent of the initiative, which is very successful every year, an indication also of a desire on the part of schools to find simple but effective ways of meeting and sharing. These numbers alone also indicate those involved both in terms of age – children from 13 to 18 years old – and also in terms of territorial origin, social and cultural background.
Each meeting was an invitation to serious thinking, a stimulus to open one’s viewpoint and horizon. The students met refugees and members of other religions and came to understand each other by confronting issues that are often divisive in many European countries, such as migration and religious issues, with discussions marked by honesty and respect. A symbolic expression of all this is the great festival celebrated every year at the beginning of the school year in October, “Writing does not go into exile.” It is a celebration of diversity and complexity that Centro Astalli organizes every year in Rome with about 1,000 students, together with the winners of literary competitions that are the result of these projects. At the Centro there is a strong belief that the work of these years with students opens up the possibility of a different world, more inclusive and respectful of diversity.
* * *
From what emerged and was experienced in 2023 in the refugee world, we can say that despite so many years of confrontation, both at the international and local levels, the migration issue has not yet been fully addressed from the perspective of the people who set out on the journey. This has clear repercussions for the lives of asylum seekers and refugees, as recorded by the various offices of Centro Astalli. Shahram Khosravi, professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University, wrote, “In this era of border fetishism and under the shadow of rising walls, an urgent political and intellectual question needs to be answered: What do we see if we look at the border from the other side?”[7]
Until we try to answer this question, the borders people have had to physically cross are as if they carry them inside. Discriminatory attitudes run through their daily lives: reception, often understood as a place of confinement, rather than as an opportunity to begin a new existence; work, understood as labor to grow the GDP, rather than as a means to imagine and design a personal future and housing. In this context, Centro Astalli, with the help of many volunteers and increasingly qualified workers, has tried to break down such discriminatory borders, through the three actions of accompanying, serving and defending, building with refugees paths of integration that are aimed at a shared future in peace. This seems to us the only way to the future that makes us “pilgrims of hope” together with refugees, “fighters of hope,” as Pope Francis reminds us. He goes on to declare, “This is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity. Here I think in particular of the many refugees forced to abandon their native lands.”[8]
Reproduced with permission from La Civiltà Cattolica.
[1]. The entire Report is available for download at www.centroastalli.it
[2]. Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration “Dignitas infinita” on human dignity, no. 40, in https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20240402_dignitas-infinita_en.html
[3]. Francis, Message for the 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2023, in www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/migration/documents/20230511-world-migrants-day-2023.html
[4]. Cf. www.europarl.europa.eu/news/it/press-room/20240408IPR20290/nuovo-patto-su-migrazione-e-asilo-via-libera-del-parlamento-europeo
[5]. Press release text, translation and original in www.centroastalli.it/patto-ue-sulla-migrazione-il-jrs-europe-lancia-un-ultimo-appello-no-allerosione-dei-diritti-dei-rifugiati
[6]. The full video is available at the link www.centroastalli.it/video-messaggio-di-david-sassoli-presidente-del-parlamento-europeo
[7]. Sh. Khosravi, Io sono confine, Milan, Elèuthera, 2019, 12.
[8]. Francis, Letter to Msgr. Rino Fisichella for the Jubilee 2025, in. https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/content/dam/iubilaeum2025/lettera-del-papa/3.2.-LetteraDelPapa_Inglese.pdf
