Immigration and mutual acceptance

I refer to Allan Gatt's letter titled Immigration And Religious Imposition (November 10). The core issue of irregular migration is the plight of people who are compelled to flee their own country, either because they are persecuted or because dire conditions prevent them from leading a decent human existence in their own land. That such people should be treated with respect and kindness was never an issue in this correspondence.

Respect and dignity for the human person is a fundamental value which we cherish as Christians. It is a value which our predecessors have sought to enshrine in our laws and which forms part of our culture. The right of migrants to seek refuge however carries an obligation on their part to respect the sensitivities of the people at the receiving end. Secondly, large scale irregular migration exposes the migrants themselves to risks and hardships which should be avoided in a regulated system. Hence the need for addressing the problem at an international level and for burden sharing. I am sure that this is what Maurice Mizzi is aiming at.

People at the receiving end expect the visitors, within bounds of reason, to make an effort to assimilate their cultures without losing their own cultural identity. On the other hand, one would also expect people in the receiving community to accept the culture of their visitors as a means of enriching their own culture in a pluralistic way. What makes people in receiving countries apprehensive is any perceived attempt by accepted migrants to take over the culture of the receiving country. Such attempts tend to unreasonably distort the national identity in an unacceptable way and tend to breed conflict. As your correspondent Allan Gatt rightly says, the media have an important role to play in support of the plight of migrants and in helping them integrate into the receiving society.

Please do not confuse the migrants' issues with the law of decency.

There are norms of decency which need to be respected in any civilised society including our own. Any religion based on faith and reason must strive to reveal what is "natural" generally and universally to humankind irrespective of what the majority opinion in a particular community believes. This is not fundamentalism. It is the search for fundamental truths based on right reason. A secular society is expected to have the same objectives at heart and it is expected to formulate and apply laws reasonably, so as to attain the common good. The Church no longer feels the need to impose its own norms, as it did in the past when the state professed its own religion; but the Church expects its members, even now, to accept its moral guidance and to act reasonably.