Public Panels 2025 – Save the Date!
“No one is illegal!”
Building Blocks for Peace-Theologies of MIGRATION
Migration is a human phenomenon. People have migrated in all of history.
So, listening to dominant political voices in Europe, why is migration portrayed as a threat to peace in society? – Differentiation is needed!
First, for migrants themselves, a lot depends on the reasons for their movements. Is it a forced migration, are they fleeing from war, economic pressure, human rights violations, or have they decided to look for a new “home” because they have been invited to obtain a great job in another place? Was moving a choice of multiple options?
Second, for the receiving community, a lot depends on their situation as well. Is it a prosperous society that views arriving migrants as a great contribution to the economic, cultural, and religious diversity that their prosperity is actually built on?
Or, in opposition, do they view migrants first of all as a burden, people that need “our” help, or who eventually will exploit “our” economic resource, a threat to societal cohesion?
In many European countries, the political discourse seems to be poisoned by stereotyping, scapegoating, and “othering” the migrants / refugees – in general. They have become an easy target group for populist campaigns and discrimination.
Theology – the reflection of societal phenomena from a faith-perspective, that views every human “being created in the image and likeness of God” – needs to add critical knowledge to and engage in that larger interdisciplinary discourse, if peace and justice are considered core values of (different) faith(s)
In this series of public lectures, we want to learn from various perspectives:
- experts who research migration from different disciplinary perspectives;
- “experts in experience” – i.e. migrants and refugees who will share their experience and critically reflect on it;
- activists who are engaged in providing support for migrants / refugees;
- community representatives who have specific insights.
All of these voices, in a larger conversation with each other, we aim to collect as building blocks for necessary „peace-theologies of migration“.