STATEMENT
of the SIGNIS
East Asia Conference 2013
Migrants and
the Media - Visibility for the Vulnerable
Sogang
University, Seoul, Korea – June 7-
9
We, the East Asian Catholic
media professionals from 5 countries in this Conference, discussed the plight
of vulnerable communities, most especially the migrant workers in the Asian
context.
Delegates coming
from the chopsticks countries of East Asia namely; Hong Kong, Japan, Korea,
Macau and Taiwan plus observers explored and studied the theme Migrants
and the Media – Visibility for the Vulnerable, with valuable inputs from various collaborators local and abroad.
The Conference firmly endorsed
that the existence of vulnerable communities specially the migrant workers is a
reality which is on the rise around the region, and needs to be addressed
urgently. In the globalized world like nowadays, diversity of a society can be
a source of creativity and imaginary power. Different cultures of migrant
people have the potential of working as energy of a society. Multi-culture
is the strength. It is also imperative that as host countries or receiving
countries where migrant workers come and work due to labour shortage that we
welcome them as brothers and sisters.
The number of foreign brides (or mail
order brides) is also on the rise specially in Korea, Taiwan and Japan where
intercultural children of the second generation are vulnerable due to
differences in ethnicity and language of the mother who is a foreigner.
We strongly believe that
just treatment and humane labour laws should be enforced in relation to migrant workers as
each individual is born with dignity. The same is also true to foreign brides
who have lived and adapted local culture through the years to be treated with
utmost respect as locals regardless of race or belief.
We are aware that the issues
concerning the vulnerable groups specially the migrant workers and their
struggles should be objectively portrayed by media professionals and social
communicators.
As Catholic communicators
living in the receiving countries where migrant workers come to work; where
foreign brides come and marry locals, we accept that our role should be:
1.
To increase
visibility and awareness through our media work the presence of vulnerable
groups such as migrant workers, foreign brides and refugees.
2.
To provide a just and fair media
representation on the vulnerable groups, avoid imposing any stereotype or
distortion.
3.
To help these
vulnerable groups adapt better to the local culture and society as a whole most
especially the second generation children of inter-cultural marriages.
This means we will engage
all media components such as the broadcast, print and new media to provide
visibility for the vulnerable through our local works in our respective
countries and communities.
END
Dated: June 9, 2013