Migrants find a new home in a Ho Chi Minh City parish church
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) Yesterday, 2,000 migrants attended mass on World Migration Day. The function was celebrated by Card Pham Minh Man at the Saint Paul parish church in Binh Tri Dong, a neighbourhood in the Binh Tan district, which comes under the archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the migrants who took part in the ceremony are young people from central and northern Vietnam.
Vietnam started to liberalise its economy in 1986 and this has provoked substantial migration from the country's rural areas to its main cities as people seek employment.
In their new, foreign urban surroundings migrants tend to work hard, experience solitude, forced to give up their previous life in order to adapt to different customs.
Since they cannot register as residents they end up taking unofficial job working in the "parallel" job market. They thus lack medical care and sometimes must go hungry for lack of money to buy food.
Some 50,000 migrants move each year to the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh, whose total population has risen tenfold since 1975, from 2.331 per square kilometre to about 25,000.
Fr Paul Pham Trung Dong, parish priest at Saint Paul's Church, heads the archdiocese's immigration commission. His parish is also involved in pastoral and social work directed at migrants. The latter tend to participate in large numbers in such activities. In fact, some 500 young migrants come to Saint Paul every week.
"Our families are poor and we came here to make money," some migrants told AsiaNews' correspondent. However, here, too, they must lead a life of poverty in order to save money.
"I rent a room that is 2x2 metres (7x7 feet) which I share with five other people," said a young man, Nguyen Van Hung. "I must travel ten kilometres to make it here."
"I am Buddhist," said Thu Hong, a young woman from Quang Ngai, in central Vietnam. "I come here with my boy friend to attend mass. I follow Bible readings, share life's experiences [with others] and participate in some social activities. I feel very happy since coming here".
"Life is still harsh, but it is important to come to Father Trung Dong to learn the catechism and take part in social activities," said another young woman. "My life is now more meaningful," she added.
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11/08/2017 20:05
