Early Returnees 1991-2010

Introductory Remarks

•         All appointments in the Society are mission appointments. First assignments are given to meet the needs of mission throughout the world, sometimes in a confrere’s home country, more often in another part of the world.

•         The question of “early returnees” is a particular issue which raises some concern. Since it involves specifically confreres who have been given a first assignment outside their home country, in order to explore the issue adequately it is important to have an idea of the number of such first assignments in general.

First Assignments Abroad

•         Of the 2442 confreres who took final vows between 1991-2010, 1374 received a first assignment outside their home country (or outside their country of residence in the case of confreres from vie and elsewhere who entered the Society outside their country of birth).

• This is 56% of all those who professed final vows during this period.

•         The number of first assignments abroad for the countries with the highest number of vocations is as follows:

–        isa:       442 of 750       (59% of all those taking f.vows)

–        ind:      187 of 427       (44%)

–        pol:      187 of 236       (79%)

–        phi:      130 of 225       (58%)

–        vie:      65 of 146         (44%)

–        gha:     52 of 87           (60%)

–        brz:      35 of 71           (49%)

•         The number of first assignments abroad from each zone, and as a percentage of all those born in the countries of the zone who took final vows

–        AFRAM:        125 of 216,      58%

–        ASPAC:         873 of 1662,    53%

–        EUROPE:      262 of 365,      72%

–        PANAM:        114 of199,       57%

•         In terms of provinces receiving confreres from abroad for their first assignment, the top provinces were:

–        png:     72

–        bot:      68

–        sin:       65

–        mex:    60

–        ger:      52

–        jpn:      52

–        ars:       51

Who is an ‘early returnee?’

•         Confrere with a first assignment outside his home country, who returns to that country

–        Some exceptions, e.g. confreres who enter the Society and do their initial formation outside their country of birth, and return to the country of residence

•         Return within 7 years after taking final vows

–        Normal time for second home leave

–        In fact, early returnees seem to cluster around 3-5 years after final vows

•         Excludes those who are called back to home country for formation or other specific work

•         Excludes those who return for clear reasons of health

How many?

•         Using the above criteria, we can identify 106 early returnees among the confreres who took final vows between 1991 and 2010

•         4.3% of all those taking final vows in these years

•         7.7% of those who received a first assignment outside their home country

Where do they come from?

•         By country of birth

–        isa:       28,       3.7% of those taking f.vows born in that country

–        phi:      21,       9.3%

–        pol:      9,         3.8 %

–        ind:      6,         1.4%

–        vie:      5 (4 from usa), 3.4%

–        brz:      4,         5.6%

–        tog:      4,         12.5%

–        cng:     3,         5.4%

–        gha:     3,         3.4%

–        kor:      3,         33%

–        usa:      3,         23%

•         The number of early returnees as a percentage of all those receiving a first assignment abroad for the major countries is as follows:

–        isa:       28 of 442,        6.3% (of those receiving a first assignment abroad)

–        phi:      21 of 130,        16%

–        pol:      9 of 187,          4.8 %

–        ind:      6 of 187,          3.2%

–        vie:      5 of 65,            7.7%

–        brz:      4 of 35,            11%

–        gha:     3 of 52,            5.7%

•         By place of formation:

–        PHC (Tagaytay):         20,       10.3%

–        IDE (Ledalero):          17,       3.5%

–        USC (Chicago):          10,       8.7%

–        POL (Pieniezno):        9,         4.1%

–        GHA (Tamale):           5,         7.6%

–        IDJ (Malang):              5,         6.2%

–        INM (Pune):                5,         1.3%

–        BRC (Sao Paulo):       4,        4.8%

•         By zone of birth

–        AFRAM:        13 of 216,                    6%

–        ASPAC:         65 of 1662,                 3.9%

–        EUROPE:      15 of 365,                    4.1%

–        PANAM:        13 of 199,                    6.5%

•         By zone of formation

–        AFRAM:        10 of 185,                    5.4%

–        ASPAC:         58 of 1484,                 3.9%

–        EUROPE:      17 of 453,                    3.7%

–        PANAM:        21 of 320,                    6.6%

	Afram	Aspac	Europe	Panam
By country of birth (% of all final vows) (% of assignments abroad)	13 (6%) (10.4%)	65  (3.9%) (7.4%)	15  (4.1%) (5.7)	13  (6.5%) (11.4)
By place of formation (% of all final vows)	10 (5.4%)	58 (3.9%)	17 (3.7%)	21 (6.6%)

Why do they return?

•         Vocation crisis (affectivity, includes those who became ‘nulli stationi adscripti’ shortly after returning home): 34

•         Enculturation (language, cultural adjustment): 24

•         Disappointment (with the mission, with the community): 17

•         Family concern (elderly or ill parents): 8

•         Sent back (request by the receiving province/region): 6

•         Unknown: 15

Some initial observations

•         Vocation crisis is the reason in 1/3 of the cases

•         ‘Stickablility’ seems to be an issue in about half the cases, that is, those classified as problems of enculturation, disappointment, and family concern

•         ½ of those classified as ‘family concern’ come from phi and did their formation at PHC (Tagaytay)

•         More that ½ of early returnees born in pol are classified as ‘enculturation’ (5 of 9)

•         Of those who did formation at IDE (Ledalero) only 2 returnees are classified as enculturation, but 7 had vocation problems

•         8 of those who did formation at PHC (Tagaytay) had vocation problems, two are classified as enculturation.

From where do they return?

•         Province/region of first assignment

–        ars:       8

–        bol:      7

–        bot:      6

–        ken:     6

–        png:     5

–        tog:      5         

–        are:      4

–        cng:     4

–        col:      4

–        ita:       4

–        phn:     4

•         Provinces with more than 10 first assignments from abroad with higher than average (7.7%) number of early returnees would be:

–        ita:       4 of 14,                        29%

–        phn:     4 of 19,                        21%

–        ken:     6 of 36,                        17%

–        ars:       8 of 51,                        15.6%

–        phs:      3 of 20,                        15%

–        hun:     2 of 13,                        15%

–        usw:     2 of 14,                        14%

–        tog:      5 of 39,                        13%

–        phc:     3 of 24,                        12%

–        are:      4 of 33,                        12%

–        cng:     4 of 36,                        11%

–        col:      4 of 36,                        11%

Regarding place of first assignment

•         Many of these could be seen as some of the more difficult places for mission in the Society

•         From arg (ars and are), one third of the cases are classified as enculturation

•         From ita, two were classified as disappointment and one as enculturation

•         From phn, half the cases were classified as disappointment

Some tentative conclusions

•         The problem is probably not as large as we often think it is, but nonetheless deserves our attention.

•         Considering that we have always had a certain number of confreres in the Society who have had problems with their vocation or with enculturation, this is not a particularly new problem, and I suspect that the scope of the problem is not much worse than it has been in the past, but it is impossible to say for sure.

•         What is clear from the data presented here is that it is not a problem particular to any one zone in the Society.

•         Certainly, the ease of travel today and the widespread movements of people around the world probably contribute to an environment where an early return to one’s country is seen as a viable option.

•         The practice in the Society of temporary assignments used rather frequently in the 1980s and early in the period we are looking at here no doubt contributed to the attitude that assignments can be seen as a temporary thing.

•         Perhaps we also need to look at our assumption that some jobs, such as formation and finance, are better done by local confreres, and the consequent desire on the part of many provinces/regions to call back native confreres from their place of mission. Perhaps this could become a point for reflection as we discuss our intercultural life and mission at the 17^th General Chapter.

Finally

•         It is perhaps important to remind ourselves that many ‘early returnees’ have been able to learn from their experience and are making positive contributions to mission in their home country.

•         To keep things in perspective, it is also good to remember that discounting those who have already left the Society, those who are ‘nulli stationi adscripti’, early returnees, and those who have already died, nearly 85% of those who professed final vows between 1991 and 2010 continue in their assignment, or have taken on a new assignment in the Society.