Catholics and Xenophobia

by Admin · April 29, 2015

BY�FR DAVID HOLDCROFT SJ�

It is now three months since a wave of looting of migrant-run shops began in Snake Park and other parts of the country, spreading to Durban where attacks left several people dead, many more injured and an estimated 2500 people displaced, reliant on churches, mosques and the city for their survival.

“The fundamental disposition, which has its source in scripture, is that the foreigner is to be welcomed.”

Public denial, even tacit support, of some political and civil leaders belies the background efforts of many to try to find solutions to this complex issue.

One such initiative, by minister for small business, Lindiwe Zulu, is the creation of a task team to try and come up with solutions for the issues raised in the Soweto looting.

Additionally there have been a number of �roundtables� where shop-owners of all backgrounds, refugee and local, actively participated.

It is important not to underestimate the role that small spaza shops play as a source of employment in poorer communities. In this context, some refugee and migrant groups have created a successful business model which has enabled them to hold their own in the face of market encroachment by the big shopping chains and malls.

It is hardly surprising to hear a clear undercurrent from locals that government isn�t protecting South African interests enough.

At the same time, there is great reluctance to use the X-word.

Xenophobia is a first cousin of racism. In a way it doesn�t matter what label one uses but it is important to name the phenomenon for what it is, that is, attacks aimed exclusively at migrant-owned shops.

At the same time, however, there is also a recognition that these issues are complex and have their genesis not in racial hatred per se, but elsewhere�in poverty, poor education and lack of opportunity and feelings of disenfranchisement among local populations.

It is here that the Catholic community and its Catholic Social Teaching have an important and particular contribution to make.

Firstly, Catholicism�s primary impulse is to be inclusive � in recognising all people created in God�s image, it welcomes all, no matter what their national or ethnic origins. The fundamental disposition, which has its source in scripture, is that the foreigner is to be welcomed (for example Deut 10:19, Lev 19:34, Mt 25:35, Heb 13:2, Rom 12:13).

But it is insufficient merely to extend a one-off welcome. Church teaching sees the human person as answering God�s call in relation to others. It therefore looks to the unique contribution that one can make to the community.

If someone is legitimately in that community, as refugees are, then the community has an obligation to ensure that all, including the refugee, can properly contribute.

It is clear that many people of refugee background living in South Africa bring skills and values that enable their businesses to prosper in an environment of ever-increasing competition.

Would it not be better if these could be shared and that business groups would have the humility to embrace people of different cultures, who may bring different approaches to common issues?

In the Old Testament, Abraham sees the three mysterious visitors near Mamre not as competition or a threat, but as an opportunity. Despite the risk, he welcomes them to his tent and asks Sarah to cook for them.

We never see or hear precisely who these strangers are, but it is through them that Abraham receives news that Sarah will conceive and have descendants. It was through Abraham�s initial hospitality that the religious and political identity of the tribes of Israel formed.

It may be that South Africa faces a similar situation�an opportunity to elicit the foreigners in its midst to contribute to solving some of the problems the country faces.

But it needs committed Catholics to help those around them both work through the legitimate issues that all face and call them constantly to the bigger picture of nation building that our faith provides.

In this manner we can help each other answer the deep call to hospitality, confident that in so doing we are indeed recovering the blessing to which God calls South Africa as a nation.

Fr David Holdcroft SJ is the regional director of Jesuit Refugee Service Southern Africa.