EVERYBODY'S CHALLENGE - Jesuit Refugee Service | USA

As mentioned earlier, one of the original assignments given to
JRS was to encourage our publications and institutes of learning to undertake
research into the root causes of the refugee problem so that preventive
action can be taken. The fact that thousands of boat people, who fled
their country when JRS was created nine years ago, are still languishing
in camps across Asia today, and that millions of other
refugees have since been forced to abandon their homes testifies to
the importance of this aspect of our Refugee Service. To ignore the
deeper reasons behind the phenomenon of forced migration is to
limit our service to emergency relief, which is necessary, to be sure,
in the early stages of every refugee flow but does not address the
vital questions of why a person has become a refugee and what
could be done to spare others a similar fate. Most refugees would say
that these latter issues are those that matter most to them. With our
many universities, social institutes and other facilities of study and
research the Society is eminently suited to address these deeper and,
in the long term, most important issues, a task which as yet we have
hardly begun to tackle.
For this reason I would say that our service to refugees through
political analysis, research, reflection and public debate, in order
to deepen the awareness of this great human tragedy of our time at
all levels of public life, is perhaps more urgent today, when refugees
face open hostility and closed borders in many countries, than a
decade ago, when world-wide compassion and generosity extended
them a warm welcome. At the same time I believe that much of this
work can be done within the framework of available resources at our
universities, social institutes, media research centres and periodicals.
4. Refugee education: a unique contribution the Society can make
Most refugees are young people. In abandoning their countries,
their homes, families and friends, they also lose the most important
opportunity towards full human development, education.
The Society’s institutions of higher education are in the privileged
position of having the resources to make a special contribution in this
area. In the developed world, they could provide learning opportunities
for refugees resettled there. In addition, they could be of service to
the large numbers of displaced people in poor countries by offering the
following opportunities:
· Distance learning: Colleges and universities could offer courses
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