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Life Across Borders: What Does the Bible Say About Immigration?
Immigration, mass displacement and refugee resettlement are complex issues. At the heart of these issues, though, are women, men and children who are made in the image of God and long to live flourishing lives. In this monthly series from World Relief, gain a global and a biblical perspective on the subject of immigration, diving into current policies and practices and sharing stories of our collective human experience.
Tune in to our latest episode where you’ll hear Matthew Soerens dive into the facts about immigration and explore what the Bible has to say about God’s heart and the Church’s response.
Listen to the podcast on – Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts – or where ever you listen to podcasts.
Mother’s Day
This Mother’s Day, we want to wish all of our mothers, in all stages of life, a Happy Mother’s Day. We know that motherhood is a blessing, but it’s not without its trials. For many of our families, mothers have made immense sacrifices for their children. Today, we honor and thank you for all that you do.
Seeta is a mother of four. When her family left Afghanistan, however, only three children boarded the plane with her and her husband, Noor.
Aysha, their youngest daughter at less than a year old, was forced to stay behind as her family left in search of safety in America. Having served the U.S. military as a journalist, the Habibs could no longer stay in Afghanistan for fear of retaliation from the Taliban.
“I was working with the U.S. military as a journalist, and she was working with USAID (United State Agency for International Development) and United Nations, so it was very dangerous for us because the Taliban did not accept people who worked for foreigners,” Noor explained. “We were not safe in our country, so in order to seek safety we came here.”
Consequently, Noor and his family were offered Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) from the U.S. government as a way to not only thank them but also to protect them.
But at the time the visa paperwork was issued, Aysha had not been born. As a result, her paperwork was filed separately, and Noor and Seeta were forced to leave her behind with other family members.
“It was a hard time because we didn’t have any choice,” said Noor, who recently found work with Amazon. “We thought if we lost that chance, we wouldn’t find it again. Because of that, we left our baby there. We came here. If we had cancelled our visas, maybe we wouldn’t have been able to get [them] back.”
Instead, Seeta and her husband arrived in Memphis in October 2020 with their eight-, six- and five-year-old children. It wasn’t until two months later that they received news about Aysha’s visa, but, for her to come, Seeta risked not being able to return to the U.S. because her green card had not arrived.
Determined to be reunited with her daughter, Seeta and her Good Neighbor Team began looking for a way to make it possible alongside World Relief Memphis staff. After speaking with the State Department, they discovered that her green card had been misplaced, but that she could go to Afghanistan with her current visa knowing that it was coming.
Yet when she arrived in Afghanistan, she was greeted by a baby who didn’t recognize her. The months apart had created distance, but Seeta was patient.
“It was emotional, and she didn’t want to come with me for one day or night, like maybe she [had] forgotten me,” Seeta said. “Then she realized who I am, and now she’s not leaving me for one minute.”
Finally, Seeta brought her daughter home. Her family was together, and they could begin to rebuild their lives in safety.
Today, she works for Shelby County, helping connect others in her community with the resources they need in the wake of the pandemic. After advocating for women and children’s safety in Afghanistan for many years, Seeta seeks to empower women in the workplace.
Similarly, Aysha is flourishing.
“She’s very happy with us now. When she came, she was sad and keeping calm,” Noor said. “But now, she’s come back better than ever and is very active.”
When asked if they had hopes and dreams for the future, Noor and Seeta immediately responded.
“For sure, that’s why we are here. We are here because of these. We try to do all our best for all our children.”Â
*This story was originally shared by our World Relief Memphis office.
Reyna’s Story
Your gift gives back
“At the beginning of this pandemic, everything we were doing as an EMT became 10 times harder.” Twenty-six-year-old Reyna has been working as an EMT and front-line worker throughout the Covid-19 crisis. It is hard to imagine her small frame lifting grown men from a third-floor apartment down the stairs to the ambulance below, but as she tells stories of her job she beams with pride because she knows she is making a difference. She is passionate about serving her city.
And you gave her the support to help our city.
Originally from Mexico, she came to the United States when she was four years old. Her father brought her family across the border because he was having difficulties finding work to care for his family as a mechanic. They settled in Chicago and she has grown up here with her close-knit family.
She recalls not sharing her family’s situation with many because of fear. But when she connected with World Relief’s Immigration Legal Services team, opportunities were opened. She started the DACA application process right after high school and was approved in a matter of months. Reyna shares, “I could do so many new things. I was able to have job opportunities. I never really thought I would go to college and I do not think my family ever expected I would be able to go to college because I was undocumented. We never knew what we could and could not do.”
After receiving a scholarship for being in the top 10% of her high school class, Reyna began college studying Computer Science. After a year of studying, she realized what she really wanted to do was be a part of the medical community, so she became an EMT. Her goal now is to continue her studies to become a nurse and hopes to work in an emergency room.
You provided new possibilities. Reyna is providing her patients the very best.
She has gone above and beyond in her job even carrying a fanny pack with extra supplies like masks for people that do not have them because for her “being there for my patients is my job.”
Reyna is a vibrant and brave young woman who like many essential workers is risking her safety to serve others during this crisis in our nation.
“When people ask me if I am Hispanic or Mexican or American, I say that I feel Mexican-American. I am both and Chicago is home, and it is where I belong. I fell in love with this city. And I want to help Chicagoans.”
She beams with gratefulness because your support has opened more opportunities in her life, “I so appreciate World Relief’s advice – it is one of those places you can definitely trust.” Â
When Persistence Pays Off
Our refugee women’s English class had been in session for two weeks when they came, a couple from Afghanistan inquiring if there was room for one more. The husband asked if his wife could join too. The class was full, but our instructor added her name to our waitlist and promised to call if anything changed.
Next week the same couple returned—was there room? The husband explained that his wife was alone at home and needed to be in this class to be with friends and learn English. He insisted that he could even stay home from work and take care of their child.
Two weeks later, the husband called to ask if there was space and could we please help his wife. We wished we had a different answer for him other than that the class was still full.
Next week, the wife came to class with a friend already enrolled in the class. She had heard through friends that just yesterday a woman had dropped out. Could she take her spot? She promised to study hard and do anything she could to catch up. Of course, the spot was hers. The shift was clear in just a few short weeks— a woman who felt isolated now had a space where she could practice English, connect with others and feel a newfound sense of belonging.
The women in our English classes overcome hardship, trauma, language barriers and so much more to establish their new lives and homes. This week we took our first field trip to the local pharmacy, what many of us would consider just another errand. Most of our students had never spent much time in a U.S. pharmacy because they found it too overwhelming and different from ones they had experienced in Afghanistan. Together we went and saw firsthand the types of medicines available, practiced asking the pharmacist questions about different options based on theirs or their children’s symptoms.
We took what we studied in the classroom and practiced in the real world, but in a way that felt safe and comfortable for the group. A passerby might barely have noticed us save that we were a larger than normal group in the small pharmacy, but for our students it was a hard-earned step towards greater self-sufficiency and confidence.
What started as one English class for a dozen refugee women in 2018 has blossomed into four different sites across Sacramento County. Someday we hope there are dozens more sites serving hundreds of refugee and immigrant women. These classes are made possible through dedicated volunteers and generous community partners like Sutter Health who are helping new Americans navigate a healthcare system that once felt foreign and inaccessible.
Join us in 2020 as we create lasting change in the lives of refugees and immigrants. Just $65 supports a week of English class for one of your new neighbors, or learn more about volunteering in programs like our Refugee Women’s English.
How World Relief fights Ebola with the help of 300 churches
The Christian humanitarian group World Relief is working with around 300 churches to battle the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The churches are based in North Kivu, as well as Djugu territory and Ituri Province, according to Charles Franzen, director of humanitarian and disaster response at World Relief.
Bringing Our Voices Together
Our office just wrapped up its second year of World Refugee Day celebrations where we partnered with local organizations to commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of the more than 60,000 refugees who now call Sacramento home. We started June 8th with a refugee soccer tournament and finished our celebrations July 13th at the Sacramento Republic FC home match with a trophy presentation to the winning refugee team in front of thousands.
This should be an exciting and hopeful time in our community. For the last six weeks, we have seen you stand with the most vulnerable and continue to extend welcome to our newest neighbors. However, on the heels of our World Refugee Day events Politico released this devastating report. According to sources inside Washington D.C., the current administration is considering lowering the refugee ceiling to zero. Zero, as in no new refugees would be able to come to Sacramento or any other major U.S. city from October 2019-September 2020.
Our current extreme refugee vetting procedures take several years on average to complete, which is why we currently see nearly 140,000 people in varying levels of processing. Halting or even pausing the refugee program would disrupt the already established pipeline and could debilitate the resettlement program for years to come. The effects of an unfavorable Presidential Determination could not be easily reversed.
Sacramento has received thousands of refugees in the past several years through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which helps Afghans and Iraqis who have worked with the United States military come to the U.S. safely. In a previously unpublished letter Former Defense Secretary Jim Matthis urged the administration not to abdicate our commitment to the Iraqis who provided the U.S. with critical mission support during our 17-year battle against terrorism. There are currently more than 100,000 of these applicants processing and waiting to legally enter the U.S. Under the new proposal they would remain in the queue indefinitely.
With figures from the State Department revealing only 22,456 refugees have arrived in the U.S as of July 12th and only three months left in Fiscal Year 2019 we are already operating at historically low levels. World Relief is calling for a restoration of the refugee ceiling to at least 85,000, which is the average we have seen since 1980 when Ronald Reagan began the refugee program as we know it. With forced global migration and refugee populations increasing due to persecution and war worldwide, your partnership in the work of World Relief is more important than ever.
What can you do? Help us move from a collective voice of “that’s sad” to “this cannot happen.” Here are four practical ways to help now:
- Pray for our nation, for our representatives and for the refugees in camps unable to return home who are waiting for a chance to start a new life
- Call congress at 202.224.3121 to reach the Capital Switchboard and get connected to your Members of Congress. Please call THREE times to reach your 2 senators and 1 representative. Tell them of your support for the refugee program – it’s simple!
- Advocate. Don’t stay silent. Many are unaware that this legal, safe, proven good for the economy, and life-giving program could be shut down amidst all the partisan talk. Let them know and help them understand how to support.
- Give to support advocacy efforts or to support the refugees here by providing the programs that help as they start their new lives
Together our voices can make a difference. Please join us in standing with the most vulnerable.
Trump’s refugee policies are damaging American cities
Over the past several decades, small cities throughout upstate New York and mid-America have counted on refugees to fill jobs left open as more Americans flock to the coasts and bigger cities. Now, with the refugee cap at a historic low, economic development in these cities is stalling.
Take Akron, Ohio. Like many Midwestern cities, Akron was hit hard when jobs in the auto and manufacturing industries started disappearing in the early 2000s. Many of its workers left for bigger cities and other opportunities. But between 2007 and 2013, Akron’s foreign-born population increased by 30 percent (more than 2,000 people). In 2013, Akron’s immigrant population held roughly $137 million in disposable income and paid about $17 million in state and local taxes; more than a third of them owned homes.
Image source : https://washingtonpost.com
Tragic drowning at Mexico-US border should shake us from our complacency
Many of us were horrified on Tuesday to see the picture of the bodies of a Salvadoran father, Oscar Martinez Ramirez, and his 2-year-old daughter, Valeria, washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mexico.
Valeria’s tiny arms were wrapped in the shirt of her father, desperately clinging to him, clinging to life. Oscar must have fought to the final terrifying breath to save his daughter from drowning until, tragically, they were both overcome. My first instinct when seeing the photo on the screen of my phone was to turn away. It was too hard, too graphic, too brutal and too personal. Read story.
Image source : https://foxnews.com
How ‘savings circles’ empower women in rural Africa
In a rural community in the small African country of Burundi, 16 women squeeze on to narrow wooden benches, arranged in a rugged circle under the shadow of banana trees. One woman’s toddler squirms in her lap. Another has tied her sleeping baby to her back with a wrap.
Each week, they come together in a World Relief Savings for Life group to learn about basic money management and to save money for emergencies, basic needs or small business investments. Read story
Midyear Refugee Resettlement Numbers
Halfway through Fiscal Year 2019, is the U.S. on track to meet the refugee resettlement cap the president set six months ago?
Based on refugee arrivals thus far, no. This infographic explains how recent changes to U.S. refugee policy are impacting refugees seeking safety and freedom in the U.S., including persecuted Christians and other religious minorities fleeing hardship around the world.
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