Loyola University Chicago School of Law convened religious leaders, policymakers, and migration experts to discuss the global migration crisis during the Conference on Global Migration and the Rule of Law April 11 and April 12 at Rome’s Pontificia Università Gregoriana.
Superior General of the Society of Jesus Rev. Arturo Sosa, S.J., serving as the event’s distinguished speaker, opened the conference with a call to continue to collaborate and find solutions that recognize migrants’ dignity.
“Our Jesuit universities are…on the front lines of social conflict, engaging in research, debate, analysis regarding the root causes of migration, the social conditions and destructive ideologies that force people to move,” Sosa said. “Therefore, I am grateful that this conference continues the tradition of keeping the Society of Jesus on the front lines of social conflict, seeking solutions and providing hope to the brokenhearted.”
Over the course of the two-day conference, experts analyzed the various factors and contemporary stressors that have led to more than 281 million people around the world living outside their country of birth.
“Migration is one of the defining social justice issues of our time,” said Katherine Kaufka Walts, clinical professor of law, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children, and co-director of the Holistic Immigration Hub. “This conference united local and global voices to confront it with both urgency and imagination.”
The six panel discussions focused on topics such as the growing impact of climate change on dislocation, solutions to the human displacement crisis, and the connections between human trafficking and migration.
For the discussion focused on climate change, panelists explored how to provide vulnerable populations resources to adapt, relocate, or resettle if their homelands have been threatened by extreme temperatures and severe weather.
“Climate change is an injustice rather than misfortune,” said Morris I. Leibman Professor of Law Carmen G. Gonzalez, who served as a moderator for the climate change and human displacement panel. “Caused primarily by the greenhouse gas emissions of the world’s most affluent populations, climate change inflicts its worst consequences on those who contributed least to the problem and have the fewest resources to protect themselves from harm.”
Juliet Sorensen, clinical professor of law and director of the Rule of Law Institute and Program in Rule of Law for Development, moderated the final panel, which focused on the future and opportunities to strengthen policies that help migrants flourish.
“My own panel sought to identify a path forward for global migration and the rule of law that was both equitable and human-centered,” Sorensen said. “Panelists focused on law and policy initiatives on the African continent; forced migration and the war between Russia and Ukraine; and asylum considerations for Syrians in the post-Assad era.”
The conference, cosponsored with Loyola’s College of Arts and Sciences, was an important extension of Loyola’s work to bring together cross-disciplinary experts to identify how the rule of law can work to protect the dignity of migrants throughout the world. In December 2024, Loyola launched the Holistic Immigration Hub, which brings together experts from various sectors to train future leaders, support Chicago community organizations, and catalyze change.
“Loyola’s Conference on Global Migration and the Rule of Law could not have been timelier,” said Sarah J. Diaz, co-director of the Holistic Immigration Hub, director of the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, and associate director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children. “While the rule of migration law is being undermined, this conference reinforced our call to elevate the human dignity of the migrant people at the center of our work—in keeping with our Jesuit mission and our shared values.”
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