Social change agent-citizen/advocate role
Casas del Migrante Network in Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala
In 1985, “Los Misioneros de San Carlos Scalabrinianos” opened the first Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, Baja California, followed by others in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Teciin Uman, Guatemala, Tapachula, Chiapas, then in Guatemala City and finally Agua Prieta, Sonora. They provided services to migrants, refugees, and deportees (Casa del Migrante, n.d.). Their mission is to provide shelter, food, support, spiritual guidance and first aid, and to defend and promote human rights. In 1999, these same Misioneros de San Carlos Scalabrinianos formally organized La Red de Casas del Migrante Scalabrini, that included a network of other NGOs and churches. To this day, this network of Casas del Migrante provides an invaluable sendee to migrants, deportees, refugees and asylum seekers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
The Casas del Migrante network also promotes and defends human rights, though their primary focus is on the immediate care of people. This direct assistance couched in the teachings of the Catholic Church meets the immediate needs of migrants. The Casas del Migrante would fall into the citizen/advocate role of social change according to the Moyer categories of social change because this network involves providing immediate assistance to those in need and helps to restore people’s dignity.
Casas del Migrante participate in Acompanamiento International because they render assistance to anyone in need regardless of nationality and religious beliefs. The Comision National de Derechos Humanos and the Universidad
National Autonoma de Mexico conducted a research study of shelters in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. Researchers from the Comision National de los Derechos Humanos (Mexico) interviewed migrants and those who work in shelters in order to capture the dreams and hopes of migrants as well as the challenges and problems that they encounter on their way. In 2018, they published their findings in a report titled “Los Desafios de la Migration y los Albergues como Oasis Migracional” [The Challenges of Migration and Shelters as Migrational Oasis]. The researchers noted that shelters like Casas del Migrante assist and provide shelter so that migrants can continue on their way (CNDH, 2018). The report included anecdotes of hungry and thirsty migrants, forced to drink water in swamps, being bitten by snakes and other animals, and at high risk of being assaulted, robbed and raped.
The report highlights Casas del Migrante and other shelters, especially those that received families. These shelters are essential in order to maintain one's strength and unity among people who are migrating. One cannot overstate the vital importance of just finding a place where one can sleep, feel safe, interact with other people similarly situated and where one is able to meet their basic needs. In these shelters, people can play, sing, pray, listen to music, participate in making arts and crafts and playing ball games; these spaces provide a reprieve from the anxiety and concerns of the migratory process. For many migrants, these shelters represent a place to rest on their long journey, and additionally, they can find “el Acompanamiento” with other migrants and those who help and provide support to them.
This report is chock full of examples of Acompanamiento International and people caring for others. Casas del Migrante rely on food donations from others to provide meals to the migrants. Staff at Casas del Migrante render aid to migrants that have lost a limb because they fell off the train, and they take care of migrants that are ill, dehydrated, suffering from animal bites or from diarrhea because they drank contaminated water.
