Why Work with Migrants & Displaced Peoples?

By Derek Lee

As Christians, our calling and work must be rooted in biblical understandings, which shape what we do and how we do it. The following is a theological overview to guide our work with migrants and displaced peoples. This is not an attempt to create a new consolidated theology, but to point to key theological perspectives that shape our calling. I will cover the following which all connect to the why behind care for the migrant and displaced: first, how we are all made in the image of God; second, how Jesus’s ministry reflects care for the migrant; third, how we are all temporary residents here on earth; and finally, how we all share the call to care for the poor and oppressed both in a personal sense and in a sense of the systems in place.

To begin, God created humankind “in our image, according to our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Humankind is made in the image of God. As a result of this, we hold to the biblical understanding that all persons are sacred. The story of creation calls us to view and to treat one another as persons created in the image of the Holy One, bearing undeniable dignity. This defines the personal and relational nature of human existence and the mystery that human life cannot be understood apart from the mystery of God. We see all people first and foremost in terms of their status as image-bearers of God, regardless of their social or political status. This truth of our status is not limited in how we see but also in how we serve. We see this in the incarnation and ministry of Jesus.

The incarnation of Christ also brings dignity and solidarity to the migrant and displaced. Through Jesus, God enters into the broken land of the human condition in order to help humanity, lost in perpetual sojourn, find their way back home to full relationship with God. God’s downward migration to humanity makes possible humanity’s migration back to God. The gospels are full of narratives about migration and displacement. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus and his family flee a threat as political refugees (Matthew 2:13-18). In the gospel of John, many have difficulty believing in Jesus simply because of the place from which he emigrates (John 7:41-43, 52). Throughout his ministry, Jesus lived a life of displacement and constant movement (Luke 9:58). God’s solidarity with humanity is so complete that God not only reaches out to the stranger but becomes the stranger. Christ’s solidarity with humanity, his death and eventual resurrection, proclaims liberation for captives, setting the captives free (Luke 4:18). This is the demand of the incarnation – that all are worth Christ, and are due dignity, peace, and justice. Jesus, the true man, models a life that is true of us all, for the children of God are all temporary residents on earth.

From the flight from Eden in Genesis to the vision of a holy city revealed to an exiled John in Revelation, the Scriptures are steeped in the language of displacement and migration. The Hebrew Scriptures are marked by a wandering people searching for home. The people of God were continuously exiled throughout different kingdoms and lands. This transient status of God’s people expanded in the New Testament as Paul explains that our chief citizenship is with God’s kingdom and God’s household (Ephesians 2:19), serving as God’s ambassadors in a foreign land, committed to the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18–20). In this way, we are all sojourners on this earth (Hebrews 11:13). While we are sojourners, we also have a calling to welcome the stranger among us by demonstrating love and empathy and practicing hospitality.

Scripture provides examples of many types of migration journeys and displacement experiences. Those who are “settled” must not oppress or take advantage of the foreigner who lives among them (Exodus 23:9), for all are aliens (Leviticus 19:33–34). The people of God are instructed to welcome foreigners as part of the community (Leviticus 25:35), build bridges of peace, and practice hospitality (Hebrews 13:1-2), ensuring a sense of belonging and home for all. This is a more specific version of the overall concern God has for the poor and oppressed.

God’s special concern for the poor and oppressed calls us to see, serve alongside, and advocate with the most vulnerable people who face disproportionate risk due to their forced migration and displacement journeys. Throughout Scripture, God takes the side of the poor and oppressed. God hears the cry of the “alien, widow, or orphan” (Exodus 21:21–24). Jesus explains that to ignore the needs of the “least of these”–the hungry, stranger, sick, and imprisoned–would be tantamount to ignoring Christ himself (Matthew 25:31–46). Displacement journeys, whether they are “forced” or “coerced,” put people at risk, and God calls us to support those displaced. This doesn’t play out only in personal care but also in how we interact with the systems around us. We are called to confess and to be renewed concerning ways we have unfairly benefited from and contributed to systems that bring about displacement and oppress the migrant. The new creation has come in Jesus Christ, and the path to new creation came through the cross (2 Corinthians 5:14-20). Disciples of Christ are called to be vigilant about the ways we have benefited from systems and policies that cause displacement and drive migration for vulnerable populations. Just as the church is called to confess and address challenges of racism, poverty, and militarism, so does the challenge of migration and displacement call for us to resolve to confess sin and embrace our responsibility to faithful lifestyles and public witness which promote justice and peace (Luke 10:36-37; Isaiah 58:3-10).

Current Displaced & Migrant Situations

Question and Answer with Derek Lee

What is the refugee situation right now?

The first thing we need to do when we talk about refugees is to define what a refugee is; not every country agrees, but there are some general agreements such as the UN’s legal definition of people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and typically have crossed an international border. The key word is persecution. Someone has to be “after them” for them to be considered refugees. For example, in Ukraine, we can see people in Ukraine fleeing and crossing borders, or people displaced in the Syrian war, or Afghanistan when the Taliban took over. A lot of people in the same situation might not be considered refugees; for example, people who have been displaced but are unable to cross the border. There are also some forced from their homes and who don’t meet this definition due to things such as climate change in Bangladesh where their homes are swallowed up by the ocean (salt water) and so they’re displaced and unable to grow things. Having a definition/legal agreement means countries are obligated to give rights and benefits but then some do not fit in these definitions.

How many people in the world are considered refugees?

Most of the numbers I have are before the Ukraine crisis. So when you read these numbers, you can add about six million to it. In total in the world, there are 84 million people who fit under this legal definition of refugee, with two thirds of these refugees coming from just five different countries. Most of the refugees are not from the poorest countries anymore. They're actually from middle income countries. A lot of these are facing some kind of war and most of them are actually in situations contrary to what we hear about in the U.S. or other rich countries. Almost 90% of the world’s refugees are hosted by middle income countries. These are countries outside of Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S.; most refugees are hosted by neighbors or by countries whose economic stability is also not that great.

In the U.S., we like to think that we host a lot of refugees, but this isn’t really true compared to our involvement in the international arena. We don't host that many people and almost half of these people are under 18. Most refugees are children. Last year, the number of people who were resettled or who got to return to their country was 126,000, less than 0.2% of the total 84 million refugees.

What is the process of refugee resettlement and relocation in the U.S.?

The U.S.'s refugee resettlement and relocation process has three basic steps. First, refugees get “processed”, to see if they can qualify for refugee status. Refugee statuses are different for every country and every country has a different definition, so sometimes I'll just use the word forcibly displaced because that refers to their situation whereas refugee refers to their legal status, like a visa status; visa status is not a good way to describe whole categories of people. So, forcibly displaced people, if they want to be able to come to the U.S., they first get processed.

The first step is processing, which is often the longest step. This step often takes several years. I have met teenagers born in camps who have spent their whole lives as refugees. Many forcibly displaced people are in some kind of camp or settlement coordinated by different agencies such as the International Rescue Community or the United Nations International Organization for Migration. All of these can process people; in the U.S. they work with the State Department to conduct background checks and see if they want to come to the U.S., and for the few that are accepted, to see if they have any ties in the U.S. Refugees also have to be sponsored by an organization. There are about twelve organizations approved by the United States government for resettling refugees. These organizations need to find housing for the refugees, help find work positions, and help find local ties. You want to resettle people where they have some kind of community or network, but the biggest need in that process is housing.

The second step is travel to their resettlement agencies. These are big organizations such as International Rescue Committee, Catholic Charities, or Church World Service. A lot of these are religious NGOs which have local branches that are tasked with providing resettlement services. This step encompasses the travel and immediate placement of refugees into safe and secure housing.

The final step is integration. This involves helping refugees develop lives where they can flourish in their new communities. The biggest needs are often housing and English classes, things that refugees or forcibly displaced people need to have in order to integrate into their local system, especially because a lot of them don't speak English. A lot of forcibly displaced people have a very high educational attainment but when they were forced to flee, they didn't get to bring any diplomas or the institutions of higher learning that they were at sometimes no longer exist because of a war. A lot of them have to start from scratch. This means minimum wage jobs, and many families have lots of children, so it's just a slow integration process.

What are the do’s and don'ts regarding helping refugees in the U.S.?

There are a lot of ways that people can help. The most significant way to help is to connect with your local resettlement agency, because as the experts in the forcibly displaced people entering the U.S., they are most keenly aware of the needs that they have.

So, the best thing to do is to sign up for your local resettlement agency's newsletter. They'll ask for help. For example, one big need was finding people who were able to donate an apartment lease for a year or something similar, or to coordinate winter clothing drives because most of the refugees these days are coming from countries that don't have cold weather and who don't know how to navigate it.

They also need people to talk with local school systems. They need a lot of ESL tutors. I remember when I was an ESL tutor for a refugee family from Iran, the dad had his driver’s license taken away, but he didn't speak any English, so he didn't know how to get it back. He didn't know who to contact and so that was something I had to figure out along with figuring out how to navigate the government system. A lot of people don’t think about it, but there's a lot of bureaucracy and it's really hard. I think a lot of people reading this magazine have their experience being part of an immigrant family, trying to figure out how to navigate the U.S. government system and it's really difficult.

For the don’ts, people who want to help should never try to find a family by themselves and then offer help that way. Go through the resettlement agency and get trained first. There are a lot of things that are expected from different cultural backgrounds and if you're not familiar with a Middle Eastern background or East African background or Ukrainian culture there are a lot of things that can be offensive. For example, in Middle Eastern culture, a man and a woman can never be left alone together; and in some cultures, you shouldn’t shake hands with certain hands. Things like these can be deemed as extremely culturally inappropriate. In addition, you should be careful because people coming to the U.S. for the first time don't really know what to do and cannot navigate systems as you can. They are in a much more vulnerable position than you are and so your relationship to them has a difference in power which affects how they see and interact with you.

Everything you do should be through a local resettlement agency.

How can we as a Christian community help refugees in terms of our attitude?

In actions, one thing that is important to note is that God doesn't make a distinction between a refugee and a foreigner, someone who is forced to flee versus someone who's just an outsider. This challenges us to think beyond who is a legal refugee because as I was talking about earlier, legal definitions are really ambiguous and something that humans invented and people don't get to choose why they flee.

There's also not a clean line between someone who's forced to go and someone who chooses to go. Someone might be forced to go because of gang activity and someone might need to come to the U.S. for economic opportunities because their child is malnourished. As Christians, we can't place value distinctions on that and say one person is deserving of love or other people are not. If you look in the Old Testament and at things such as the year of Jubilee and all of the rules for hospitality, the foreigner has rights regardless of their visa status or who they are. We don't only want to help people from certain countries that are friendly to the United States. We want to help all people because a lot of these people are victims of the circumstances of where they were born and all created in the image of God. We need to extend our table rather than limit the people who we are breaking bread with.

There are lots of ways Christian churches can practically form small groups, and help sponsor refugees; however, it may not be a good idea to just give money directly to refugee families. Money is a complicated thing and it should always be given through resettlement agencies directly so there's more transparency.

But there are many things that church communities can do. Resettlement agencies are typically really good at working with churches so reach out to your local agencies to partner with them.

Derek Lee currently works in the Airbel Impact Lab of the International Rescue Committee, a large NGO dedicated to helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. Prior to that, he has worked in many different countries with different NGOs and nonprofits. This includes serving as the United Nations Delegate for the Mennonite Central Committee UN Office, advising with Catholic Relief Services as a cash-team technical fellow to support forcibly displaced populations in Bangladesh and Uganda, and working with small rural communities in Nepal and the Philippines. He currently lives in New York City with his wife Grace Pyo.