CATHOLIC NEWS Sunday, October 25 2009

The plight of the Beijing Luijuan Construction Corporation workers, which dominated the headlines for many days, raises important questions, not only for their employers and the Governments of Trinidad and Tobago and China, but also for the citizens of our country.

Today migrant workers are a worldwide phenomenon. In most instances they supply the workforce that the host country cannot supply. This is not entirely true in the local situation. Government can no doubt argue that the foreign contractors are able to build more cheaply and in a shorter timeframe. It is true that the work ethic of many of our skilled and unskilled workers leaves much to be desired, but Government’s attempt to get around this problem has clearly backfired. What is the true cost of hiring Chinese workers?

In his latest encyclical Charity in Truth, Pope Benedict XVI draws attention to the “striking phenomenon” of migration today, which he calls “a social phenomenon of epoch-making proportions that requires bold, forward-looking policies of international cooperation if it is to be handled effectively.” He says, “Such policies should stand out from close collaboration between the migrants’ countries of origin and their countries of destination.” The resolution of the issues regarding the Chinese workers in our midst is one in which both the Governments of Trinidad and Tobago and China have a stake.

As pictures of the shameful living conditions of these immigrant workers circulated in the media and their plight became better understood there was a public outcry, but the story should cause us as citizens to be more attentive to all situations of injustice among us.

In his 2007 Pastoral Letter, “Deepening the Spirit of Solidarity in the Archdiocese”, Archbishop Edward Gilbert, while acknowledging the many valiant ways in which our citizens already care for those in need, called on the local Church to do more and be more for others in these changing times. These events should spur us on to a truer sense of solidarity, understood as people caring about and feeling “responsible for each other’ and as having “a sense of individual awareness and reciprocal responsibility.”

In Charity in Truth Pope Benedict goes on to state that migrant workers “must not . . . be treated like any other factor of production. Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance”.

In a press release last week, the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) described the events surrounding the plight of the workers as a ‘wake-up’ call to the nation. We urge Government to heed the CCSJ’s call to action.

Today’s Gospel tells the story of the blind beggar Bartimaeus who shouts to Jesus from the side of the road: “Son of David, have pity on me.” May we always hear the cries of the ones who suffer among us and have the courage to act.