Father Edwin Corros: Faith and Migration

How They Did it – Stories for Migrants by Migrants

The Role of Religion is Important in Migrating

Whatever the faith or religion of a person may be, it is part of their culture and even more so, the sum total of their personhood. Even so, many people lack awareness of the role faith plays in their culture, mentality, and thinking. For those migrating abroad, the role of faith becomes even more crucial. If not given the proper attention, it will very likely disappear entirely from a person’s life and not be there when he or she needs it, such as when faced with an unexpected reality of hardship.

The migrant experience has shown how it becomes all too easy for migrants to forget about religion once faced with the various realities that they experience in their destination countries. Often, they find themselves doing things that are foreign or alien to them out of sheer necessity or survival. Many new migrants are being forced to do various things that they sometimes think would not be done otherwise at home. Eventually, their mentality gradually changes as they adapt to life in a foreign country and acquire the characteristics and personality traits of the people there. Usually, religion is one of the first things that is lost or changed in the process.

Much as more or less 80 percent of Filipinos consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, Kakehashi recommends that migrants, regardless of whether or not they are indeed Roman Catholic, make it a priority to practice their faith as actively as they can in their destination countries of which Japan is just one. Upon their arrival, they would do well to seek out places of worship such as churches where they can hear Mass as well as meet other Filipinos. The Church is not merely a place of worship, but also a place where they can seek and receive assistance from fellow parishioners in the event that someone is experiencing problems in life. There, they can likewise be helped to find solutions to these problems.

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