Against the Robots

Reflections on the Holy Father's various statements concerning migrants

The migrants arriving in Europe today are not all fleeing a catastrophic situation. They often arrive with broad smiles. They don't all seem destitute. They show no nostalgia for their homeland and arrive in large numbers to find another. Melancholy is absent, compensated for by the sense of community they bring with them and find there. Finally, they travel alone, without wives or children, which should raise eyebrows. To say the least. That there is a deliberate motive behind this seems obvious, even if the label of conspiracy theorist will be thrown around at that statement. Migrants of the past left an unfavorable situation not to find comfort, but rather to escape hell, without being certain of finding solace, but armed with hope, as I said earlier. They left with wives and children because they wanted to protect them. National sentiment has disappeared among modern migrants; are they a-national? If that's the case, what could make them a-national, a supranational entity? Where do they find the money to make the crossing? During the Iraq War, Christian religious authorities noted that passports and visas were widely distributed, whereas before the war, it was extremely difficult to obtain one. Finally, the fact that the majority of these migrants are Muslim should also raise questions. When we know that a Muslim must die (and therefore live) on Muslim soil, we can only wonder about their lack of desire to go to Muslim lands. Especially since these are often much closer geographically than Europe. These are all questions that Pope Francis never asks. So many questions that nevertheless seem self-evident.