Johnson, Peter Ewaoche
(2023)
Sinful Social Structures and the Issues of Migration and Refugees:
Reassessing Pope Francis’s Agenda on Migration/Refugee Crisis
and the Response of the Church to the Challenges of Internally
Displaced Persons in Nigeria.
PhD thesis, St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth.
Abstract
The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees testifies that an unprecedented 89.3
million people around the world have been forced from their homes by conflict and
persecution. Among them are 27.1 million refugees, 53.2 million Internally Displaced Persons
and 4.6 million asylum seekers. Over half of the world’s refugees are under the age of 18. 1
out of every 88 persons in the world has been forced to flee.1 Behind the cold numbers of
staggering statistics that characterise contemporary global phenomenon of migration, “lie
human faces struck by tragedies of immense proportions, with loss of land and homes, family
separation, physical sufferings, rape, sexual violence, psychological damage, lack of
opportunities for education, uncertain future, and death itself.”2
Migration is a perennial
concern for the church and theology and has been addressed in many ways but fundamentally,
through the church’s teaching on unconditional hospitality, and the human rights and dignity
of victims. The complex nature of modern migration calls for a greater attention to the
structures of society and the role they play in the migration and refugee crisis. Hence, this thesis
addresses the migration/refugee crisis through the lens of “sinful social structure.” This is
necessary because conflict and poverty, the two major causes of forced migration, both have
roots in local/international structures. A review of Pope’s Francis’ agenda on the migration
regime, and an X-ray of the situation of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria provide deep
content for the task of the Thesis.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
migration; refugees; conflict; poverty; sin; sinful structures; human rights; human dignity; hospitality; |
| Academic Unit: |
St Patrick's College, Maynooth > Faculty of Theology |
| Item ID: |
19213 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
21 Nov 2024 14:50 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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