How Should Christians Think About Immigrants?

As I spend time on social media, I come across quite a few Christians who are rejoicing at reports of immigrants being rounded up, being expelled from the country, and being put in a prison (not necessarily in their home country).

Not only do these Christians approve of these actions, they assert that is “the” Christian response. If you are a Christian, you should want immigrants sent away, not worrying about any due process.

Many of the Christians who are approving of this would be conservative and would claim a high view of Scripture. In fact some have supported this by saying this fits with Jesus’ command to “love your neighbour” and our neighbour is the person whose family has many generations in this country.

So what does the Bible say about immigrants?

Actually, the Old Testament says a lot about immigrants living among God’s people. What does it say? To treat them with kindness. In fact, how one treats the immigrants in their midst is one of the measures of how godly the people are.

I know that some people will respond by saying that the Bible is talking about legal immigrants and that illegal immigrants must be treated harshly.

Except the Bible does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants because those categories did not exist. But the Bible does speak of refugees, something that God’s people sometimes found themselves being. Refugees are to be cared for, not abused.

But I think there is another biblical category that should come into play that is valuing of truth.

I have heard many claims of immigrants being violent criminals. Remember when they were accusing Haitian refugees of eating pets, something that was disproven?

The narrative is that since immigrants are dangerous criminals, we must use radical means to protect our innocent civilians.

Are there violent immigrants? Of course. Does that describe the average immigrant? Of course not.

I have lived in some high crime cities. Do you know what I observed? I noticed that the newcomers to Canada were hard workers, often working multiple minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. The violent crimes were most often by white Canadian-born people who would never take those kinds of jobs and so turned to crime.

So why do some Christians still see immigrants as undesirables that should be removed from the country?

Some Christians see everything through the lens of the culture wars. In the culture wars, they remember a “golden age” when everything was good before the liberals messed everything up. Society was mono-ethnic and mono-culturural and everyone attended church.

They identify the coming of the immigrants as the outward sign of so many bad things. If we could only get back to the way things used to be, we could regain many of the privileges the church enjoyed before.

The truth is that there never really was a golden age and the Bible should be read through the lens of truth and justice rather than a fight against the liberals.

I am thankful for the immigrants in my community, documented or undocumented. Those who are criminals, after due process, should be punished. However, immigration is a blessing.

Remember the claim that rejecting the immigrant is loving the neighbour. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus illustrated loving our neighbour by telling the story of two men from antagonistic cultures.

Perhaps a lesson to be learned.