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94th World Day of Migrants 2008: Young Migrants
ICMC calls for open identities instead of defensive mechanisms

Informed by its 172 members world wide and working in 40 countries with and on behalf of many thousands of migrants and victims of human trafficking, ICMC encounters daily the profound vulnerability of migrants and their difficulties to overcome the many legal and illegal structures and rules that narrow their possibilities to build a future in full respect of their dignity.

Of the world’s 200 million migrants more than two thirds are women, children and adolescents.  They are particularly vulnerable wherever they may be in the migration process.  Of the children who leave their country each year, a staggering number are minors non accompanied by an adult relative.  “These boys and girls often end up in the street” Pope Benedict notes in his message for this 94th World Day of Migrants, “abandoned to themselves and prey to unscrupulous exploiters who often transform them into the object of physical, moral and sexual violence”. 

Vulnerabilities often lead to situations of forced labour, servitude, exploitation and modern slavery.  They therefore call for our particular attention and action: recognizing their specific vulnerabilities is a first step in accepting that many have become victims in need of urgent assistance rather than rejecting measures.   

While today growing attention is given to victims in trafficking, child soldiers and the various forms of modern slavery, other, more deeply rooted vulnerabilities remain still too much ignored.  Of the many younger migrants of second and third generation many are still in search of their social identity.  They feel loosely connected to their inherited culture looking for reasons for cultural pride.  On the other hand they also feel committed to the host societies and they are in search for ways of building their and our future.  Their need for identity and integration is however often denied leaving them isolated.  The many protective rules and structures as well as the defensive mentalities are indicators of the many difficulties our societies encounter in managing complex diversities.  But recent events have sufficiently demonstrated that when differences result in inequities, tensions unavoidably rise with deplorable results.  They generate a descending spiral that follows the illusion that short term solutions seem to promise but which in reality fundamentally affect and menace societies, mentalities and therefore the future for all of us.   

Young people worldwide have a right to work; they need support and accompaniment to guarantee a peaceful future; they need to be given all chances and opportunities to seize their responsibilities; young people are a wealth and an option for the future, not a menace.  They are key to the understanding of complex diversities and can largely contribute to establishing mentalities that include rather than exclude.  Their integration is therefore not so much a goal but an essential means in building our future and our future societies.  We therefore need to identify the connecting points that unite us all and to develop together the courage and the creative spirit that opens our communities to the broader complexity of multi-cultural societies.

The world is moving today towards a more fundamental transformation of the traditional concepts of communities and national identities.  This is not a crisis but a challenge and a process inviting us to build more open identities that aim at inclusion and integrated interaction.   It is a time to abandon the identity of the lost case, to steer away from the negative or purely controlling identities, to recognize that moral values outweigh commercial interests; a time indeed to develop the courage and creativity to fully focus on the development and the building of all human beings without any distinction.  

Johan Ketelers
Secretary General