Migration

Novena for Migrant Families

Our country is experiencing an immigration crisis like never before as harsh new immigration policies upend the lives of immigrant families-- at the border and within the U.S. With the Novena for Migrant families, members of the Loyola Community will have an opportunity to come together to pray for migrant families, develop a deeper understanding of the challenges facing our immigrant sisters and brothers, and demonstrate solidarity with families fleeing poverty, violence, and oppression for peace and freedom in the U.S.

Please find materials for hosting your own Novena below.

Novena Digital Booklet PDF

Novena Print Booklet PDF

Novena Booklet Word Document

Tainted Legacy

By Sue Weishar, Ph.D. JustSouth Quarterly Spring 2018

The position Donald Trump has taken towards immigration since he launched his campaign for the presidency is undeniably racist and divisive. From calling immigrants rapists, murderers, and animals and their homelands “shithole countries,” Trump has forsaken the “dog whistle” appeal to voters’ worst instincts favored by many modern nativist politicians for blatant and crude race-based fearmongering and scapegoating. The major objective of his policy and legislative actions on immigration, from ending DACA to decimating the U.S. refugee resettlement program and terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for tens of thousands of immigrants who have lived here for many years, is clear: to reduce the number of non-white immigrants in the U.S.

Immigrants and Crime: Debunking the Myth

By Sue Weishar, Ph.D. JustSouth Quarterly Spring 2018

In his first State of Union address, President Trump repeatedly linked immigration with gang violence, murder, and terrorism. This, of course, was not surprising from someone who has made demonizing and deporting undocumented immigrants and gutting legal immigration a major focus of his Administration. Notably missing from his speech were any facts supporting the notion that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than nativeborn Americans. There is good reason for this: over a century’s worth of social science research has consistently found that immigrants are no more likely to engage in criminal activity than persons born in the U.S.

OUR PERSPECTIVE:

JSRI'S Catholic and Jesuit Perspective on Migration

During the last twenty years, and especially following Hurricane Katrina, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of migrants – both documented and undocumented – in the southern states. More and more immigrants are settling into nontraditional urban and rural receiving communities in the South, where the Hispanic population more than doubled during the 1990’s. The Jesuit Social Research Institute seeks to provide practical, collaborative participatory action research, social analysis, theological reflection, and advocacy related to the issue of migration in the Gulf South in collaboration with Jesuit social and migration networks, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Catholic diocesan ministries serving immigrants in the Gulf South, and other advocates. Our Catholic faith is deeply rooted in the experience of migration. More