Good Migrations?

One hundred ninety-one million people lived outside of their country of birth in 2005.

Below is a Q/A with Michael Pocock, D. Miss., Chairman and Senior Professor of World Missions and Intercultural Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary on the subject of immigration. Dr. Pocock has much to say, having himself immigrated from the United Kingdom as a young teen with his parents in 1955. He spent sixteen years (1971–87) as a missionary in Venezuela and later as mobilization director. Since 1987 he has taught at DTS. He travels extensively, has written several excellent books, and was a driving force behind Ethnic Workers Summit in Dallas, 2005.

Many countries face immigration challenges. What are some foundational considerations for considering immigration from a biblical perspective?

. All people are valuable, made in the image of God. They should be treated with dignity even when out of desperation they attempt to circumvent laws. Therefore, there should be a protective system of advocacy for foreign workers, laws against exploitative use of foreign workers, against violence, domestic and public. Prosecution of abusive employers. Regular and fair payment of workers. Decent and affordable housing (Gen 1:26–27, 2:3; Matt. 6:25–33; Gal.6:10).

. The need to earn a living, have enough food and shelter and safety should be respected by everyone in countries with resources and jobs. This means people should be free to cross borders when desperate. This is clearly established in the rules for alien and poor workers in Scripture, and exemplified in the case of Ruth in the Old Testament. Boaz allows a foreign woman, Ruth, to glean in his fields, and offers her protection (from his own male workers), safety, respect, water, and shelter. He is not simply coming on to a nice foreign, but a vulnerable female worker; he is acting decently and in accord with national laws. (See also Ex.12:49; Lev 19:9–10; Deut 24:19–22.)

. National governments are basically a unit of governance that are established by God and in a sense serve him (Mt 12:17; Rom. 13). They are there for the wellbeing of the people, even though some slip into violent or self-serving ends. In any case their rule must be respected. The U.S. or any other country has a right and duty to establish policies for the wellbeing of its people. Those policies must be respected by citizens and foreigners alike. A nation has a duty and right to establish a reasonable (manageable) rate of flow of foreigners who immigrate or migrate for economic and other reasons.

What immigration policy would Jesus advocate?

It seems the only mandate he gave regarding immigration was that, as his disciples would go into all the world, they would make disciples of all nations! (Matt 28:19–20). He sees all Christians on the move as disciple-makers. I’m sure his mother and father told him stories of finding refuge in Egypt as a baby following the cruel edicts of Herod the Great. He knew what it meant to be a stranger within his own country, gripped by regionalism in which he was disparaged as a Nazarene and Galilean. He said “The son of man does not even have a place to lay his head,” (Mt 8:20) so he was a man of the road, he knew about marginalization (as Virgilio Elizondo has written in Galilean Journey), and he ministered from the margins.

So Jesus’ policy would reflect solidarity with migrants, understanding, compassion and respect, while he would also urge due respect and honor to governments. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus although they are different persons of the Trinity. When the Spirit works, it is not different from what Jesus would do. The first thing the Holy Spirit did at Pentecost in Acts 2 was to make the blessings of God clear so that people from fourteen nations present at that moment could understand. God is interested in all the peoples of the world. He is a global God, and his Spirit is an international spirit. Christ’s immigration policy would stress ministry to migrants and also the responsibility and privilege of Christian migrants to spread the Gospel wherever they find themselves.

Conservative Christians understand that America is a land of immigrants and that their parents at some point probably immigrated to this country. They look favorably on the U.S. as a land of opportunity and a magnet to the world’s people. Generally they do not seem to realize that we are not the only country to which the world’s 191 million immigrants have gone. Thirty-five percent of immigrants globally go to Europe. About 23 percent come to the United States.

More to come...