International Scientific Online Conference of IMDC Berlin and PUST Rome

Abb.: PUST/Angelicum & IMDC 

[22.05.2021] Migrant workers are part of the everyday economic life of Europe. Today we find Ukrainian agricultural workers in Spain, Romanian workers in German meat factories, and Slovakian, Czech and Hungarian geriatric nurses assisting Austrian families - to name a few. Usually these workers are "invisible". Many of them are exploited both socially and economically. During their time of employment, they live in poverty level accommodations. Employee rights, such as hours or work breaks, have been ignored. During this time of COVID crisis these invisible migrant workers have become visible. The lines of exploitation often run between Western and Eastern Europe; but also occur between EU and non-EU states.

On May 21, 2021, the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas ANGELICUM, Faculty of Social Sciences, Rome, and Institute M.-Dominique Chenu Berlin hold a one-day scientific online conference about "Social Solidarity in Europe. Labour Migrants from Eastern Europe for Western Europe".

Among the main speakers presenting their papers were P. Fabio Baggio CS, Sotto-Segretario della Sezione Migranti e Rifugiati, Dicasterio per il Servizio dello Sviluppo Umano Integrale Vatican City), Msgr. Robert J. Vitillo, Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission (Geneva, Switzerland), P. Xabier Gómez OP, Regional Promotor of Dominican Friars in Europe (Madrid, Spain), Prof. Dr. Michal Opatrný, Vice-Dean for Research and Development, Faculty of Theology, University of South Bohemia (České Budějovice, Czech Republic), Prof. Dr. Tado Juric, Department of History, Catholic University (Zagreb, Croatia), Prof. Dr. René Macallef SJ, Facultà di Teologia, Ponitificia Università Gregoriana (Roma, Italy), Prof. Dr. Matthias Vogt, Faculty of Management and Cultural Sciences, Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (Germany), Prof. Dr. Annamaria Silvana de Rosa, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University (Rome, Italy), Prof. Dr. Inocent-Mária V. Szaniszló OP, Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas ANGELICUM, Faculty of Social Sciences (Rome, Italy), Prof. Dr. Augustine Agwulonu OP, Faculty of Theology, Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Faculty of Social Sciences (Rome, Italy).

Prof. Dr. Thomas Eggensperger OP (Institut M.-Dominique Chenu Berlin / PTH Münster) and Prof. Ulrich Engel OP (Institut M.-Dominique Chenu Berlin / PTH Münster), Co-organizer of the Academic Conference, gave a common lecture under the title: "'Workers without face, without name and history'. Social ethical and theological reflections on the situation of migrant workers in the field of care for the elderly  in Germany". 

All scientific papers of the conference will be published in a collection at Angelicum Press. 

 

For more information see the website of the symposium >>

 

See the communiqué from the conference: "Social solidarity in Europe" (EN/IT) >>