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Frontier or Barrier? Migrations in the World. For the commemoration of World Refugee Day on June 20, the Father General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolàs participated in an encounter organized …More
Frontier or Barrier? Migrations in the World.

For the commemoration of World Refugee Day on June 20, the Father General of the Society of Jesus, Adolfo Nicolàs participated in an encounter organized by the "Centro Astalli" in Rome on the theme "Frontier or Barrier? Migrations in the World".

"Sometimes the frontiers are created by our ignorance. We do not know who the others are, we do not know how they live over there and therefore we think that our way of living, our country and our culture are the centre of the world."

"It is clear that there is an educational problem in all of this; the welcoming of others is natural but can also be learned."

"Education means to open all the windows of a child's mind, of a boy or girl who is growing and who has the right to become a sensitive person to all human realities; to communicate mental habits, habits of the heart, cultural habits, a variety of things. This means to educate flexible and open people, who are not frightened by what is new or different… who are open to all possibilities."

Many refugee men and women participate in the encounter, guests of Centro Astalli – the Italian headquarters of the Jesuit Refugee Service, present in 5 Italian cities – that each year takes in approximately 18 thousand people from countries at war.

"I left because my country is at war; I left because of that, because of a tremendous war. Many people have died and many others are still victims of the war, and I left because of this. There are many other people who will not have this opportunity."