“Take concrete actions” to Address Migration Effects on Families in Africa: Priest

The São Toméan Catholic Priest echoes findings of the April 25 report shared with Agenzia Fides as Cape Verde prepares for the 2024 celebration of the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of Santiago, one of the archipelago’s islands, showing that there are more natives of Cape Verde away from home.

Fr. Serôdio said that poverty and violence in Africa have forced many families and individuals to flee their respective homes in search of better living conditions. 

Migration has thrown many people “into a state of stress, impoverishing the individual's main support system” and separating them from their family members, he said.

He decried absentee parenting, saying the presence or absence of parents in families “determines the children’s psycho-physical, scholastic condition, about functional and emotional balance in the family nucleus, about behavior inside and outside the domestic circle.”

“Children of migrant mothers are the most exposed to the effects of this phenomenon (absentee parenting), such as the state of craving or the feeling of fear and loneliness,” Fr. Serôdio said.

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He also linked xenophobic violence and an increase in abandoned street children to migration.

The member of the Clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Sao Tomé and Príncipe said that formal education has the potentiality of enlightening the community on matters of migration and land-related issues.

“One must invest in education for life, which implies education to a community of property, which unites all its members to that which conserves and fortifies life, for example, the land, the hereditary patrimony,” Fr. Serôdio said.

He added that “major investment in youth development, including entrepreneurial, political, social and leadership skills and development,” are some of the effective solutions to migration issues. 

To assist families to cope with the effects of migration, Fr. Serôdio said that the Church “has a special care for this (family) institution, manifesting and proposing solutions and actions that can contribute to the welfare of the family and its members, despite their wounds.”