Serving Bread

Why do [tag]immigrants[/tag] come to the United States? There are many factors and answers to this question. Some come for a better life. Some come for family. Some come for political asylum. And some come for jobs.

As I mentioned in the previous post, scripture is full of stories of migrating people. In [tag]Ruth[/tag] 1, Elimelech moves his family from Bethlehem to the country of Moab because of a famine in Judah. The severity of the lack of food pushes Elimelech to abandon his home, his culture, his extended family network, and his friends, in search of a better life in Moab.

And to make things even more difficult, the Moabites and the Hebrews were not on the friendliest of terms. They had fought battles and they had vastly different worldviews and religious views. But Moab had food and Judah did not. Elimelech and his family had to put all those things aside because Moab offered what Judah did not.

People usually migrate in search of a better life. Why are so many of our neighbors from Central and Latin America coming north? An oversimplified answer is: We offer the promise (and perception) of a better life than they are experiencing in their home country.

It’s never easy
Anti-immigration proponents too often explain that immigration is easy. It is easy for immigrants to come and settle in our neighborhoods. What is misleading is that immigration is never an easy thing on the migrant. The costs are great, and the pressures they are facing in their communities usually come to a tipping point where they feel like they have no choice but to risk their lives and community networks for the sake of a better life for the future.

Elimelech risked much to move to Moab. It was not easy to move to Moab and see his sons marry non-YHWH loving women. It was not easy to move to a country that does not have the value system of the Hebrews. It was not easy to move to a place that is hostile to Jews, where the people do not speak the same language.

Push and Pull Factors
When people immigrate, there are usually both “push” and “pull” factors. Push factors are the factors that convince people that it’s time to leave their community. Pull factors are the things that draw people to a new place.

As immigrants, my family weighed both the push and pull factors before we settled in Northern California.

Our particular push factors included:

• Civil war with no end in sight
• Death Threats
• Persecution of Armenian (Christians)

The pull factors included:

• Family
• Promise of a better life for the kids
• Promise of an easy future

True immigration reform must address both [tag]push and pull factors[/tag] (I will address this in another post). The point here is that there are reasons why people are immigrating. It’s never easy for people to leave. Elimelech and his sons died in Moab. His wife Naomi became shunned back at home and as a widow, dropped to the bottom of society. The move to Moab was costly.

Listen to their stories
The aliens among us are not necessarily people who are trying to get a free ride, to destroy our way of life, or to overtax our welfare systems. The aliens among us are like Naomi and Elimelech. There are reasons why they are here. There are push and pull factors. Let’s listen to their stories.

The government refuses to listen to their stories. Liberals and Conservatives have their own agendas in reforming the immigration system, and no one is listening to the story of the migrant. As the church, we must listen to the story of the aliens among us. The Ruths, Naomis and Elimelech are among us. They are the widows and the orphans that God commands us to care for.

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