Berkley Center

In this article, Senior Fellow Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., examines the history of Roman Catholic efforts to integrate immigrants into U.S. society through a large network of parishes, schools, health care facilities, and social service agencies. Hollenbach also presents the normative stance of Catholicism concerning refugees and migrants, which stresses that respect for the dignity of persons requires enabling them to participate in community life. He suggests new ways to strengthen Catholic action on the integration of refugees and migrants by recalling both the Catholic community’s memory of its immigrant past and the values of its normative tradition. The article, published in the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, is a product of the Global Refugee and Migration Project, a two-year collaboration between the Institute for the Study of International Migration and the Berkley Center.