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By Michael Swan
The journey of finding belonging often leads us to unexpected places where we discover deeper truths about ourselves and others.
Mehmet has been a Christian these last 10 years, a refugee for eight years and will become a Catholic later this year.
Mehmet is not his real name. Though he now holds a Canadian passport and lives his life well out of reach of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly vengeful, authoritarian government, Mehmet still fears what going public would mean for friends and family back home.
When Safety Means Starting Over
“It’s kinda not safe back in Turkey to say that (I am a refugee),” he said. “I’m from southeast Turkey, then I converted 10 years ago. I came to faith when I was 25 or 26. Also, I’m queer. … Turkey is not the most open place.”
“God accompanies you. … And I have a very visceral understanding of that accompaniment. The spirit is with you. On my journey, God has accompanied me.”
Mehmet’s academic work led him to write about the Hizmet movement and the Armenian genocide — two topics bound to raise the suspicion, even fury, of Turkish authorities. But at the time, the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey had not yet happened and Turks were still half-hoping to join the European Union. Without thinking of the political implications, Mehmet innocently applied for a visa to continue his academic studies in Canada. He got out just after the coup attempt, as authorities were rounding up suspected enemies, firing thousands of academics, closing down newspapers, jailing political opponents. After a year of distracted and frustrated Ph.D. studies in Canada, Mehmet thought he might have to return to Turkey.
“The times that are most significant are those times of breaking bread, sharing a tea, sharing a meal.”
“Someone told me, ‘Mehmet, you are a textbook definition of a refugee. … You should apply for asylum,’” he said. “It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. The process is very complex. There’s huge stigma and shame associated with being a refugee, an asylum seeker — everywhere actually, especially these days.”
The Power of Walking Together
In becoming a refugee, Mehmet discovered the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Canada. There, he found what he needed most — people willing to simply walk alongside him.
“God accompanies you,” he explained. “And I have a very visceral understanding of that accompaniment. The spirit is with you. On my journey God has accompanied me.”
The word “accompany” is everywhere in JRS communications — on their website, in their fundraising letters, in the seminars they stage and the notes for meetings. What JRS is and what JRS does is impossible to understand without this simple word meaning “to go with another.”
“This whole idea of breaking bread with, to accompany, it’s different than to serve,” said JRS Canada country director Norbert Piché. “Because you are walking beside, walking with — you’re in the same sphere and you are pretty much equal during that time. Those are the moments when you can share whatever about your life. And each person gets that opportunity. To me, that’s what builds community. If that isn’t spiritual, I don’t know what is.”
JRS advocates for asylum seekers in Canada, pushes the Canadian government for improvements to the refugee determination system, builds community among asylum seekers and refugees, and helps them through the legal process. They also educate ordinary Canadians about refugee issues. But none of that counts if it’s not done in the context of accompaniment, Piché said.
“It has to become personal. If it doesn’t become personal, so what?” Piché said.
Part of making it personal for Canadians who may only experience refugees as a political issue that drives Canada’s news cycle is a simulation game called “A Journey into Exile.” Available to parishes and other groups either online or in person, the game confronts players with the real-life choices refugees must make and the sense of alienation that often defines refugee life.
Out from behind his desk, Piché spends as much time as he can with refugees in Montreal. In late October he was out with a group viewing fall colours and picking apples.
“One of the refugees who had been here for a few years — he has an adult son who is autistic. He said it was the best day since he’s been in Canada for him and his son,” Piché recalled. “The times that are most significant for me are those times of breaking bread, sharing a tea, sharing a meal.”
In Ethiopia, Lebanon, Colombia and more than 50 other countries, JRS accompaniment takes a different form — primarily education. In refugee camps, the JRS ensures that people have the opportunity to learn useful skills.
Hope Through Education
“Education is probably the most important thing,” said Piché. “It gives them hope for something else. They’re not going to be just trapped forever in the refugee camp. Once they’re out of the refugee camp, if they don’t have any education, it’s going to be bleak. With an education, there’s a hope somewhere.”
JRS Canada: Walking with Refugees
- Defends the interests of asylum seekers
- Builds supportive communities among refugees
- Offers “A Journey into Exile” simulation experience
- Works through accompaniment — walking alongside refugees in their journey
While Piché and his small team of five professionals concentrate on their work in Canada, Canadian Jesuits International raises money and support for JRS operations internationally.
“Last fiscal year, we sent a total of $370,000 to various JRS projects worldwide,” CJI executive director Jenny Cafiso said.
For every $100 donated to CJI for JRS, at least $93 goes to fund the work in refugee camps and among refugees scattered throughout the poorest neighbourhoods of some of the poorest countries in the world. CJI needs 7% of most donations to fund its operation in Canada, but with donations of more than $10,000, that falls to 5%, and anything over $100,000 results in a flat $5,000 discount.
For Mehmet, the mechanics and financing of accompaniment are less important than the spirit of it.
“What I’m trying to say is that God accompanies me. God’s people accompany me. They were so ready to accept me. They didn’t make it about themselves.”
Learn more about refugee accompaniment and support
Many Jesuits put themselves at the service of refugees during their regency, like Rocky Robenson Roger, SJ. “During my two years at JRS, I worked as a community worker and pastoral accompanier with refugee families. These shared moments were for me moments of great joy, full of dynamism and enthusiasm. This experience represented a new and fundamental initiation to pastoral accompaniment.”
