Columban competition on Migrants - Second Place

Esther Watson

The following article came second in the Columban Young People's Competition 'Migrants are our Neighbours'. It is by Esther Watson, 17, of Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College in Cheshire.

There's a coaster on my desk. Grey. Squared shaped. Great for holding a good cup of tea. Pretty average really… except it's not. The words printed on it are more relevant than it's round edges or it's wooden-like frame. They express hope, warmth and freedom:
We are all children of migrants.

Think where you are today. The ancestors who got you here. We have all come from migrants, everyone one of us. Whether it be your great-grandparents who escaped the Irish Potato Famine of 1845; your Viking ancestor across in Norway; or even the Neanderthal who gave you red hair, we are never truly Anglo-Saxon (and even the Anglo-Saxons came from Germany!).

A recent study by AncestryDNA showed that the average British person was 36.94% British with the other 63.06% as either Irish, European, Scandinavian, Russian or further afield. This evidence suggests that humanity is not so different. We are all interconnected in some way and are neighbours to each other, regardless of our ethnic background.

The Oxford Dictionary defines 'compassion fatigue' as 'an indifference to charitable appeals on behalf of suffering people, experienced as a result of the frequency or number of such appeals. What can be done to overcome this indifference? To show our interconnectedness?

In 2016, Lord Dubs, who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport in World War 2, launched the Dubs campaign. He called for 3000 (of the estimated 90,000) unaccompanied child refugees, who had arrived in Europe in 2015, to be welcomed into Britain. In the midst of the biggest refugee crisis seen since the Second World War, this was an opportunity for Britain to show compassion to vulnerable children, just as Lord Dubs had experienced. So far, the target of 3000 children has in no way been met. The government seems reluctant to allow them entry into the UK.

In Syria, 13.1 million people are in need. There are 6.1 million internally displaced persons and 2.98 million in hard-to-reach and besieged areas. These figures are beyond comprehension. By simply thinking of 1 person out of that 13.1 million, we can recognise a neighbour of ours.

By welcoming and providing a home to migrants, perhaps Britain will see that they're not different to us. They are our neighbours. They represent our ancestors who were migrants themselves.

Migrants are real people with hopes, dreams and worries like the rest of us. Swamped in this fog of news bulletins and YouTube videos, it becomes easier to forget the people behind the screen.

So, what positive action can young people take to help our migrant neighbours? One suggestion is to join your local YCW (Young Christian Workers) Impact! group and work together to campaign for refugees. If there isn't one, why not start you own? YCW is an international Catholic youth movement whose aim is to make a difference in the local and wider community. Impact! is a section of YCW dedicated for teenagers aged 12-18.

I am President of my parish YCW Impact! Group. Currently we are working with Caritas on a project to house a Syrian refugee family. Inspired by the words of Pope Francis ("May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary in Europe host a family"), we aim to make a difference.

Another option may be to help out at your local refugee centre or charity shop. Charities like the British Red Cross are active in supporting vulnerable migrants - and you can be too! There's a local refugee support centre where I help to load lorries with donations of clothes and food.

Just like that grey coaster is more than it seems, so are migrants.

They are more than the battle zones they escape from, the fear of death or the shocking images emblazoned by the media. They are more than "that foreigner who's stolen my job", the dirty looks at customs, or the neverending cloud of uncertainty.

Migrants are our neighbours; they sit next to us on the sofa not, on the other side of the telly, in a mystical land that can be put on standby.

Let's remember the Golden Rule: love thy neighbour as thyself.

(Editor's note: Beautiful writing!)