Posts Tagged ‘Mass Displacement’
Evangelical Views on Immigration Are Shifting
Matthew Soerens is the U.S. Director for Church Mobilization and Advocacy at World Relief. Today, we are thrilled to talk with him about a new study from Lifeway Research that reveals positive changes in evangelical views on immigration.
When Lifeway Research worked with World Relief to conduct a similar study back in 2015, just 12% of evangelicals said that the Bible was the primary influence on their views of immigration. Since then, the numbers have significantly shifted.
In almost every category, evangelicals polled moved closer to World Relief’s views on U.S. immigration, including 70% who say the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees and 78% who support a path to citizenship for immigrants who are currently in the country illegally.
We celebrate this news!
At World Relief, we believe God calls us to welcome the stranger and foreigner living among us. While we are encouraged by these numbers, we know there is still work to be done in discipling the church and advocating for those who are seeking a safe place to call home.
God invites each of us into a transformational relationship through Jesus. And though this transformation often starts at the individual level of the heart, it almost always ripples out in a wave of collective transformation that leaves us closer to the Shalom that God desires.
Listen to our conversation or read it below. Then join us as we use our voices to advocate in the halls of Congress and with the people in our everyday lives.
Can you start by telling us what this survey is about and how it was initiated?
At World Relief, our approach to immigrants in our community and to questions of U.S. immigration policy are guided by the Bible, not by public opinion.
But as we interact with churches in various parts of the United States, we’ve certainly observed an increase in eagerness from evangelical churches both to welcome refugees and other immigrants and to engage in immigration policy issues. We were eager to see if a rigorous research study would confirm our anecdotal observations.
We worked with Lifeway Research back in 2015 to do a similar study, so we reached out to them again to see if they could poll evangelical Christians, asking them a number of the questions that they asked then as well as a few new questions, to help us understand how American evangelicals are thinking about refugees, immigrants and immigration.
The study was conducted by Lifeway Research in partnership with World Relief and the Evangelical Immigration Table. For those who may not know, what is the Evangelical Immigration Table?
The Evangelical Immigration Table is a broad coalition of national evangelical denominations and organizations. World Relief helped start the EIT more than a decade ago, and we lead it alongside partners such as the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and several other partners.Â
Our collaborative efforts are focused on trying to encourage distinctly biblical thinking about issues of immigration — both in local churches and among the elected officials with the authority to set immigration policy.
Since the Evangelical Immigration Table launched in 2012, we’ve organized our efforts around a Statement of Principles rooted in biblical values. Specifically, we’ve called for immigration reform that:
- Respects the God-given dignity of every person
- Protects the unity of the immediate family
- Respects the Rule of Law
- Guarantees secure national borders
- Ensures fairness to taxpayers
- Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.
We were really encouraged to confirm that each of these six principles was affirmed by at least 78% of American evangelicals in this new study.
What were your reactions to the findings?
To be very honest, I was nervous to see what this study would find. I’ve devoted more than a decade to trying to challenge evangelical Christians to embrace a view of immigrants and immigration policy that, I believe, are rooted in the Bible. But there have certainly been moments in the last several years when it felt like we were actually losing, not gaining, ground. So, I was overjoyed to get these results, which showed that evangelicals have become more favorable to World Relief’s policy views on just about every count and, even more importantly to me, that a significantly higher share of evangelicals now say they understand what the Bible has to say on this topic — though, of course, there is still a lot of work to do.
What were the most significant findings in the survey?
The one finding that really startled me was that 70% of American evangelicals — including 68% of white evangelicals — believe that the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees, which U.S. law defines as individuals who have fled persecution due to specific factors such as their race, religion or political opinion.
At World Relief, of course, we’d love to see that be 100% — but it still represents a gobsmacking shift in perspective from 2018, when just 25% of white evangelicals told Pew Research Center that the U.S. had a responsibility to receive refugees. Of course, this study cannot definitively tell us why evangelicals’ views have changed so dramatically, but it’s just really remarkable to see such a dramatic pivot over just a few years.
What encouraged you most from the survey?
Anyone who has heard me preach or speak at a church in the past seven years has probably heard me lament the 2015 study’s finding that only 12% of evangelical Christians thought about immigration issues primarily from the perspective of the Bible.
For a community that is supposed to be defined by our commitment to the authority of Scripture, that’s a scandal — and, I believe, the result of a deficit of discipleship. So what was most encouraging to me was to at least see some significant, positive momentum when compared to that 2015 survey. Among self-identified evangelicals, 21% now cite the Bible as the most important factor influencing their views; that’s still unacceptable, from my perspective, but a large jump over the past seven years.
That’s likely related to another shift: 31% of evangelicals now say they’ve heard a message from their church encouraging them to reach out to immigrants, compared to just 21% in 2015. I suspect that one reason only a minority of evangelicals have heard a biblically-informed message on this theme is that many pastors worry that speaking about immigration would upset some members of their congregation, but the study also finds that nearly four in five evangelicals now say they would value hearing a sermon applying biblical principles to immigration issues, which I hope gives more pastors the courage to preach God’s heart on this topic.
In nearly every category, those polled moved closer to World Relief’s views on immigration. What do you think prompted this shift?
The study doesn’t answer that question directly, so we can only speculate, but I would hope that as more evangelicals are engaging the Bible than were a few years back, they’ve come to the same conclusions as World Relief has, which is a position that affirms the value of immigrants and wants to see those who are undocumented have the chance to earn permanent legal status and eventual citizenship, while also affirming the need for secure borders.
I also think that the recent crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine have reminded many Americans of why we ought to be a country that welcomes refugees and others fleeing hardship. And the reality that the media coverage — whether from left- or right-leaning media outlets — has largely painted a sympathetic and factual picture of the plight of Afghans and Ukrainians has likely also helped and is a key difference from 2015, when many Americans were hearing things about Syrian refugees on television or the radio that, frankly, were untrue and elicited fear among some evangelicals.
To be clear, the Bible hasn’t changed, and World Relief’s position is to welcome Syrians, Afghans, Ukrainians, Venezuelans and whoever else is fleeing persecution — but the media narrative certainly does impact people’s views.
You spend a lot of time talking to people and speaking to churches about immigration reform and God’s heart for immigrants. Can you share a story of a time you’ve seen a tangible shift in the way someone has been thinking about immigration?
Honestly, this is my favorite part of my job, and it’s why I’m convinced that a significant share of evangelical Christians really are trying to follow Jesus and are open to aligning their hearts with God’s heart for refugees and other immigrants if they’re discipled well.
I get the privilege of speaking on this topic on a fairly regular basis, and I can usually pick out a few people in any given audience with arms crossed and a scowl whom I suspect are unhappy that their church is even having a conversation on immigration in church. But when I focus on the Bible, and the many ways that the Bible speaks rather directly to God’s love for the vulnerable foreigners, I watch as people’s posture relaxes and God’s Spirit does his work.
The author of Hebrews tells us that God’s Word, is “alive and active…sharper than any double-edged sword, [judging] the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12), and I’ve often had the privilege of seeing people’s attitudes change when they’re confronted (gently, I hope) with a biblical message.
What’s the biggest area of resistance you encounter when it comes to immigration reform and welcoming immigrants to the U.S?
I think that a lot of Americans, including a lot of evangelicals, have been discipled by cable news, talk radio and social media to believe that they must choose one of two extreme positions on immigration: either be for open borders, with no regulation and no regard for immigration laws or to be for closed borders, restricting immigration dramatically if not entirely.
I’m not persuaded that either of those polar views is an option for a Christian whose authority is the bible, which both compels us to love and welcome immigrants, with a particular concern for those who are vulnerable but also instructs us to respect the law and the governing authorities. Frankly, there aren’t a lot of Democrats or Republicans in Congress advocating either of these extreme views — though some accuse their opponents of taking the opposite extreme position.
The most fierce resistance I encounter is from people who expect us to manipulate the biblical witness to fit one of these extreme policy perspectives, and I find most are disarmed when they realize that’s not our position at all.
President Biden recently set the refugee admissions ceiling for the Fiscal Year 2023 at 125,000 — the highest it’s been since fiscal year 1993. Do you see any correlation between the Lifeway Research Study and the refugee ceiling?
Consistent with this Lifeway Research study that finds that refugee resettlement is now broadly supported by U.S. evangelicals, a recent Pew Research Center survey finds that most Americans in general — of every major religious tradition and partisan affiliation — also now think that resettling refugees should be a “very” or “somewhat” important part of U.S. immigration policy. That level of popular support is likely one factor that President Biden has considered in setting such a relatively high refugee ceiling.
But, as we’ve highlighted at World Relief, setting this ceiling does not necessarily mean that 125,000 refugees will be admitted to the U.S. in the coming year.
In the fiscal year that just ended, the United States actually did resettle far more than 125,000 individuals who fled persecution — proving our nation has the capacity and will to do so, but most of those resettled were Afghans and Ukrainians who were brought to the U.S. through legal channels other than the formal refugee resettlement program, precisely because the governmental infrastructure for refugee admissions had been decimated over the past five years and progress toward rebuilding has been slow.
While we are grateful that the U.S. found ways to support Afghans and Ukrainians, using these legal workarounds has created other problems. Many of the Afghans who came to the U.S. last year only have temporary legal protections and work authorizations. This Is why we’re now desperately pleading with Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act so that Afghans can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing they will not be sent back and this is now their permanent home.Â
I hope and pray that both the Biden administration and Congress will take these poll results as confirmation that they have the support of the American people, including large majorities of evangelical Christians, to rebuild a robust refugee resettlement program that not only allows us to admit future Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, but also resumes resettlement of refugees who fled conflicts years ago and have been stuck in camps or other inadequate settings with little global public attention, and allows us to nimbly respond to the next unforeseen refugee crisis.
What would you say to someone who wants to build off of this momentum to advocate for immigrants in the U.S. and even in their hometowns?
One finding of this study is that four in five American evangelicals say that they want Republicans and Democrats to work together to pass reforms that include a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, many of whom have benefited from the DACA program — in addition to reforms to ensure an adequate, legal agricultural labor force and strengthened border security. That’s really a pretty remarkable figure: it’s hard to get 80% of U.S. evangelicals to agree on anything.
U.S. evangelicals feel urgency around these concerns, with more than 7 in 10 saying they want Congress to act this year.
There’ve been bipartisan bills introduced in Congress to address each of these challenges, including the Dream Act, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, but it’s far from clear that they will get a vote.Â
Though 65% of evangelicals say they’d be more likely to support a candidate who supported policies addressing these three policy concerns, it’s far from clear that Congress will act any time soon on these priorities.
If we want to see change that lasts in the halls of Congress and in our communities, we need the church to be active stewards of the influence to which God has entrusted us by speaking up with vulnerable immigrants for more just policies. That might start with sending a quick email message or making a phone call (I know it’s intimidating for millennials like me to call someone on the phone, but our partners at the Evangelical Immigration Table have a tool that makes it so: they’ll call you to connect you to your Senators’ office, and there’s even a sample script).
And then, we can ask ourselves: who else could I get to make a phone call? What misconceptions could I gently correct that are held by those within my own family or church community — pointing to the Scriptures and to the relationships that I have with people directly affected — to get them to the point where they’re ready to make a phone call as well?
We hope this interview and the findings from Lifeway Research have left you feeling encouraged and inspired. If you’re interested in learning more or taking the next step, you can visit worldrelief.org/advocate or check out evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/advocacy for more opportunities. Thank you for joining World Relief as we create change that lasts!
Matthew Soerens is the US Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief, where he helps evangelical churches to understand the realities of refugees and immigration and to respond in ways guided by biblical values. He also serves as the National Coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that advocates for immigration reforms consistent with biblical values. Matthew previously served as a Department of Justice-accredited legal counselor at World Relief’s local office in Wheaton, Illinois and, before that, with World Relief’s partner organization in Managua, Nicaragua. He’s also the co-author of Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2016), Welcoming the Stranger (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and Inalienable (InterVarsity Press, 2022).
Peace like Breath
These days, peace feels hard to find. International conflicts, ongoing fall-out from COVID-19 and climate disasters can all disrupt our peace and well-being. Yet, at World Relief, we have the privilege of working alongside people who have overcome some of life’s great challenges, finding personal peace even in the midst of difficult circumstances.
That’s why, as a part of our inaugural World Relief Youth Writing Contest, we asked participants in World Relief Durham’s Mentorship Program to reflect on how each of us can be peacebuilders in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.
We are proud to announce Muhammad Hasham Ahmad as our 2022 contest winner! As the leaders of tomorrow, we believe refugee and immigrant youth have important things to say today — things we can all learn and grow from, no matter our age or where we’ve come from.
In his essay below, Muhammad shares how he believes we can all find peace, even in the midst of life’s challenges.
Peace has become a fancy word nowadays. Everyone likes peace but not everyone has it!
For me, peace means to be satisfied — to have a quiet and calm state of mind or simply to be in a situation where you are not worried about anything. From this definition, we can assume not everyone has peace.
Every year, there are millions of people who migrate because of problems they face that make them lose their peace. People leave their home country, some leaving their family and friends, to go to a new country in the hopes of finding peace.
Do you think they find their peace as soon as they land in a new country? No! They still have to face many problems in those new countries too — like my mom did.
She came to the U.S. without knowing any English. At first, she wasn’t able to communicate, but as time passed, she learned English well enough to be understood.
But still my mom worries as millions of thoughts cross her mind every day. Thoughts like: how am I going to provide for my children, myself, housing, insurance, finding work? How are my family back home doing? And many more worries…
Now, let’s talk about how children can lose their peace. Some come to the U.S. with little to no ability to write or speak English because they didn’t have the opportunity to go to school — like I didn’t.
Nowadays, all kinds of people lose peace in childhood because they are worried about living up to society’s standards. Standards like having good grades — fun fact: in an Asian household like mine, you better bring a report card home with all A’s! — a successful future, handling bullies at school, stress from moving, leaving old friends, getting along with new people and much more.
It is natural to lose peace while going through all of this. Everyone wants peace in their life, but not everyone knows how they can find it.
Peace may not be easy to find, but I remember something my teacher once said: “It is human nature to never be satisfied with what we have, so we worry about what we don’t have. If you keep worrying about something you can’t control, you will lose what you can control. So focus on your present rather than the future.”
This helps me find my peace.
We all should work on ourselves to become better, more peaceful people. Focus less on the expectations of others and worries about the future, and you will most likely find peace.
Lastly, I think peace should be as important as breathing. What happens if we don’t breathe? We die! In the same way, not having peace of mind slowly kills you every day and every moment. We lose our concentration and our ability to act and be in the present moment.
So work with the things you can control to save yourself from dying every day. That’s how we can all live a happy and peaceful life!
Pave the Path to lasting change. For young people like Muhammad, finding peace in a new home takes time. You can help create more opportunities for immigrant and refugee youth to heal, thrive and share their voices by joining our community of committed, monthly donors, The Path.
Muhammad Hasham Ahmad is 15 years old and lives in Durham, North Carolina. He came to the U.S. with his family four years ago after leaving his home country of Pakistan. He loves writing and making people laugh with his stories.
The Drivers of Mass Displacement: Ukraine and Beyond
Nyakaar abandoned her home in South Sudan when armed conflict threatened her village. She found safety in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians camp, a U.N.-run camp for internally displaced South Sudanese people where World Relief operates health and nutrition programming. Shortly after arriving, Nyakaar gave birth to her son, Bone.
In the world today, a record-breaking 117.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes. That’s about 1 in every 78 people that live across the globe.*
While many of us think of refugees when we hear the words “mass displacement,” the majority of displaced people worldwide are actually internally displaced people like Nyakaar and Bone.
The causes of mass displacement are many, and the repercussions reach far and wide. Today, we’re taking a bird’s eye view of the topic of mass displacement to help you understand what causes people to leave their homes, who is fleeing and how people across the globe are joining World Relief to address the drivers of mass displacement and care for those who are displaced.
*These numbers reflect the latest estimates from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. This blog was originally written May 10, 2022 and updated on April 11th, 2023.
What causes mass displacement?
People are displaced from their homes for myriad reasons — persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and climate-related factors to name a few.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the most recent example of how war can force millions of people to flee their homes. However, there are many other conflicts and crises occurring in the world which are also causing people to flee their homes.
For example, violence in the Darfur region of Sudan has caused many to flee in search of a safe place to live, farm and raise their children. Some of these families remain internally displaced while others have fled across international borders into Chad and other surrounding countries. Apart from the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, 68% of the world’s refugees have come from the following five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. Though crises like these have received varying levels of media attention, the needs of the displaced remain critical.
Refugees, Asylum Seekers and IDPs
Many times, displaced people flee to regions or countries surrounding their home region, while a smaller percentage relocate to a more distant country. A displaced person can fall under several categories:
- Internally Displaced People
- Refugees
- Asylum Seekers
Internally Displaced People make up the largest category. These are people who have been displaced within their own country. They have been forced to flee their home and region, and have resettled in a different part of the same country in which they already lived. Currently, 61.2 million people are classed as Internally Displaced People.
Refugees make up the next largest group of displaced people. These are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. It’s likely that you’ve read stories of refugees like Bohdan, Abdinasir and Amira — all people who left their home countries due to conflict or persecution, applied for refugee status and were resettled right here in the United States.
Today, there are about 29.3 million people with refugee status in the world.
In 2022, the U.S. has agreed to resettle up to 125,000 refugees plus an additional 100,000 Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion. As is evident, there are far more refugees in the world than can be resettled even in a country as large and as resourced as the U.S.
Asylum seekers make up the third and smallest category of displaced people. These are people who have fled to another country, but who have not yet been granted official refugee status. These women, men and children may have to wait years to receive an official status.
Currently, there are about 5.6 million asylum seekers living around the world today.
Host Communities
One final impacted group remains to be identified, and these are the host communities.
Host communities have not been displaced from their homes, but the swift influx of refugees into their communities severely impacts those who already lived in the region. Often host community members need the same support that refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people typically receive.
A large number of refugees can mean reduced access to land and water and can cause a scarcity in resources. For example, in Sudan, conflicts have broken out over land usage, as host communities and displaced people seek to utilize the scarce land and water resources available in the host community area.
World Relief works within these communities to increase access to clean water as well as facilitate peace committees to solve interpersonal conflicts before they grow.
What else is World Relief doing to help?
After a person is displaced, they can either choose to return to their home, or they can resettle in a new location. However, for many, the option to return home is not a viable one, as drivers of displacement often last for generations. World Relief is currently serving displaced people across the globe in several ways:
- In DR Congo, a country that’s facing one of the world’s worst hunger crises, World Relief works with host communities and with displaced people who have returned home by providing agricultural training and farming supplies to help families grow crops to feed their families and sell the surplus in local markets to earn an income.
- Globally, World Relief serves refugees who have crossed the border into our international countries of operation, working with local partners to provide emergency aid to families living in temporary shelters.
- In the U.S., World Relief partners with the U.S. government to resettle refugees. We also serve asylum seekers and other immigrants by providing community connections, legal services and other vital services like ESL classes, job training and more.
- In Sudan, South Sudan and DRC, World Relief serves internally displaced people by equipping local village peace committees and providing health, nutrition, WASH, education, agricultural programming and more.
- World Relief also advocates for the vulnerable when injustice occurs. We believe speaking up along with the poor and oppressed is an important witness to a watching world about the character of Jesus.
Mass displacement remains one of the largest and most challenging crises of our time — a truth that will take intentional coordination and investment between local and international communities, churches, governments and non-profit organizations to address.
At World Relief, we believe Jesus came to earth to love the vulnerable. Jesus didn’t bring hope and salvation from a distance. Instead, he came to us, showed us love and suffered with us. Whether we are welcoming refugees and asylum seekers into our own communities or providing relief to those displaced overseas, we get to be the hands of feet of Jesus, sharing his love to a world in need.
To learn more about how you can help refugees and displaced people in the U.S., visit our private sponsorship page.
Lydia Dawson served as World Relief’s Humanitarian and Disaster Response Unit Program Officer in Sudan, and in disaster response worldwide. Prior to joining World Relief, Lydia worked in homeless services and community development in Oregon and California. She is passionate about equity and honor for underrepresented groups, both locally and internationally.
Reflections on Motherhood, Privilege and War
This afternoon my husband built our son a playhouse. Ten minutes was all it took to assemble the basic sand-colored canvas, another ten to fill it with plush blankets and toys. As the sun streamed through our living room window and my husband marveled at the safe, sweet little space he’d built for our son, I thought of Ukraine.
How many millions of families would wish right now for that safe little canvas playhouse, assembled in more time than it took Putin to turn their homes to rubble? I wonder what they chose to take with them in those ten minutes, as they pulled their babies from their beds and fled.
Viewing war and suffering through the lens of motherhood is a new experience for me. It’s raw and visceral and hard. So much harder than before. I feel connected to the millions of women fleeing Ukraine in ways I’ve never before felt. An experience, it seems, that is clearly felt by mothers all over the world as we hear about women like Lubomira, who fled Ukraine with her three daughters and three-week-old, premature son, leaving behind her husband to the mandated military conscription.
The plight of these women is almost incomprehensible to me. And it’s brought me to tears again and again as I sit with my baby boy.
As I feed him, I think of the children in Mariupol, who have been cut off from food, clean water and basic necessities for weeks.
As I rock him to sleep to sweet lullabies in his nursery, I think of the babies lining the floors of loud, overcrowded bomb shelters.
As I watch his daddy play with him, I think of all the fathers left behind. The women and children who have lost their partners and protectors during the scariest time of their lives. I think about the fact that 90% of the 4.3 million refugees are women and children without husbands and fathers — a million families separated.
Truly, I cannot comprehend the fear, the pain and the suffering. In these moments, I’ve cried out to God for mercy. Lord, what can we do?
It’s easier to shut it out. To turn it off when it all gets too much. When the headlines and images become unbearable. But then I remember, the mothers of Ukraine can’t do the same.
They can’t turn off the bombings, the sirens or the shouts of Russian soldiers. They can’t turn off the cries of their babies, their growling stomachs, their chattering teeth. They can’t distract from the knot in their throat, the pit in their stomach. They don’t get to switch the channel.
And so, nor will I.
I will bear witness to this moment. I will feel it all. I will ask God for the courage not to look away. And I will remember it’s hard for a reason. The pain in my chest. The nausea in my stomach. The knot in my throat. It’s there as a reminder that we’re not meant to shut off from the suffering of humanity. It’s our hearts, our souls, our bodies, telling us to act. To do something, anything, to help.
Will you join me in praying for the mothers of Ukraine, and the millions of mothers caught up in war and violence around the world today?
Lord,
Thank you for the extraordinary gift of motherhood. Thank you for the way it connects us, transcending culture, geography and time in its shared experience. Thank you that in times like these, it draws out the very best of our instincts to love and support. Thank you that in mothers you created a superhuman strength, one that can come only from you. Grant all of us the grace to channel this type of strength.
Lord, today we see this strength in the mothers of Ukraine. We cry out for your loving protection. We ask that you embrace these mothers in your arms of tender care. Guard them and pour upon them your comfort and strength. Give them the stamina to survive the pain and despair this war has brought. Remind them, Lord, that you have not forsaken them nor abandoned them, even in their darkest hour. Give them the words to comfort their children, and one another, as they are separated from their families by distance or death. Bless them with a peace that surpasses understanding, and remind them of your love for them each and every day.
God, we pray this prayer today not only for the mothers of Ukraine, but for all mothers caught up in war and violence around the world today. Place their hope in you Lord, so that it might renew their strength. Allow them to run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint. Pour out your love and peace upon them, Lord God, on this Mother’s Day, and every day.
In your name we pray,
Amen.
Francesca Albano currently serves as Director of Branded Content at World Relief. With a background in Cultural Anthropology and a graduate degree in Strategic Marketing Communications, she connects her interests in societal studies and global cultures with her training in brand strategy and storytelling. Francesca is especially passionate about grassroots community development and the treatment and advancement of women and girls around the world.
Resettled: One Woman’s Journey Beyond Rebuilding
As the number of refugees arriving in the U.S. continues to increase in the coming months, we invite you to partner with us as we welcome them. Today, we’re excited to give you a glimpse at the lasting change that can happen when we move together.
A Crossing of Paths
At World Relief, we’re honored to walk alongside refugees and immigrants from around the world as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. Sharing their stories with you is a privilege. Often though, the stories we share are limited to a short and intense part of people’s lives.
Years later, you may wonder along with us, “How is that family doing now?” I never expected to get an answer to this question when I moved from North Carolina, where I worked at World Relief Triad, to Utah. But that’s exactly what happened.
Two weeks after moving, I bought a plant on Facebook marketplace from a woman named Buthainah. It didn’t take long for us to realize our shared connection: she had been resettled by World Relief Triad in 2009. Hearing her story reminded me of the lasting impact we can have when we move together. Buthainah eagerly agreed to share her story with us today.
When Everything Changes
Buthainah grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. Although the country was tightly controlled by Sadam Husain’s regime, she remembers having a happy childhood.
Her father worked as a major general at the naval academy, and her mother was an architect. Buthainah did well in school. She was a child of imagination — drawing, reading and writing stories in which she was the heroine. “Life was simple for us kids and family,” she said, “we were happy and content!”
But then war broke out, and everything changed. At 13, Buthainah fled with her parents and four sisters to Jordan. Two and a half years later, they were selected for resettlement in the U.S.
Flying to the U.S. was stressful. As a family of seven, they struggled through the airport with two suitcases each. Buthainah remembers bringing clothes, drawings and a memory book from elementary school with notes from her friends and teachers. “I’m a very sentimental person. [They’re] silly things, but they hold a lot of value for me.”
Buthainah’s family arrived on June 25, 2009. From geography to environment to culture, Buthainah was immersed in a world of difference. And a world where she, herself, was labeled as different.
“You have your life, and all of a sudden, it’s taken away from you,” she said. “And then you are labeled as a refugee, not who you are. It makes you feel unseen and it diminishes your value… or at least it did for me.”
Someone to Walk With
But someone did see Buthainah and her family — former World Relief Case Manager, Brian Boggs. “Brian was one of the very few people early on to really understand us,” Buthainah remembers. “He spent time to explain the system to us.”
Brian drove the family to appointments and made sure the kids were enrolled in school. He helped them navigate their new home, finding grocery stores and bus routes.
“[Case management is] basically like helping somebody start their life over in a new place,” Brian explained. “If you think about all the basics people just take for granted — children going to school, parents, if they need it, getting English classes — you’re trying to guide people in a way that will help them be successful later on.”
In the midst of hectic transitions and changes, Buthainah remembers that Brian was there for her family when they needed him most. “He was a stranger to us, [but he] made it easier to feel people cared and saw us for who we were, not just another number or another person who is going to be a burden.”
Life After Resettlement
With Brian’s help, Buthainah’s family adjusted to their new lives in America. The girls settled in at school and their parents found work. Their lives were being rebuilt. Eventually, Brian became busy caring for more recent arrivals, and Buthainah and her family transitioned out of World Relief programs, pursuing new dreams of their own.
Buthaina’s parents both went back to school for master’s degrees and then PhDs in computational science. Her mom is now working as an energy analyst and her dad is retired.
One sister is completing her residency in Delaware. Another is working as a paralegal and plans to go to law school. The third is in college, and the youngest, who was only five when they were resettled in the Triad, is hoping to finish high school in just three years.
As for Buthainah, she graduated high school with excellent grades, went to college, and worked as a process chemist at a pharmaceutical company. She then decided to attend graduate school in Utah.
Today, she’s moved back to Greensboro to be closer to family and has successfully completed a PhD in organometallic chemistry. She’s now dreaming of starting her own business and maybe even a reform movement.
“Like reform of education and reform of the way we think,’ Buthainah said. She wants to help people understand the many ways we can learn and approach life. “Exactly how I’m going to get there?” she laughed, “I don’t know — but I have faith that it will all work out.”
When We Move Together
Twelve years later, Buthainah’s had time to think about her experience of resettlement. When asked what she would say to her younger self, she said, “Just know who you are. Be true to who you are, and don’t be ashamed of where you come from.”
She also had some advice for those welcoming refugees now. “You have a choice to judge another human being and make them less than you or not,” she said. “We’re very thankful to the people who really gave us a chance and gave us a start.” People like Brian.
When Buthainah and Brian recently reconnected, she told him, “You made us feel seen and you made us feel like we’re humans and we have equal chance. Because of that, we were able to believe in ourselves. It just takes some people sometimes to have that faith in you at your lowest when you doubt yourself.”
But Brian is reluctant to take credit.
“When you know people who are going through some of the hardest things not only that they’ve been through, but maybe all of humanity could go through,” he said, “you see potential. I don’t take credit for any of it… [Buthainah’s family] worked hard and believed in themselves. It’s theirs. It’s really nice to be invited into their journey.”
For refugees, the road to rebuilding their lives is long. You can help Pave the Path for more families like Buthainah’s by joining our community of monthly givers who are committed to helping refugees and immigrants thrive today, tomorrow and long into the future. Will you join us in building lasting communities of welcome?
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
Leading and Inspiring Change: Celebrating Evelyn Mangham
A Celebration of Life
Every once in a while you meet a person who truly inspires you. Evelyn Mangham, who, along with her late husband Grady Mangham, began World Relief’s refugee resettlement program in the 1970s, was one of those people. She passed away October 5, 2021 at the age of 98, and today we mourn the loss and celebrate her life and ministry.
Born in 1922, Evelyn spent the early years of her life living in what is now known as Syria and Jordan as the daughter of missionaries. After marrying Grady Mangham, she moved to Vietnam, where the couple lived and ministered from 1947 to 1967 as Christian & Missionary Alliance missionaries.Â
Together, they taught Bible school and supported church planting and discipleship among the Montagnard people. They returned to Nyack, New York in 1967, where they worked from the Alliance’s headquarters. Evelyn, though, said that she felt stuck at that time— missing the people she had befriended in Vietnam and the life to which she had become accustomed.
Soon, the political situation in Vietnam deteriorated. Six Alliance missionaries were killed in 1968 as the Tet Offensive began. In 1975, when Saigon fell and the flow of refugees increased dramatically, Evelyn and Grady began receiving urgent pleas from people whom they had known in Vietnam, who had now been forced to flee as refugees. “We had to do something,” Evelyn told me when I interviewed her in 2016.
Seeing People as People
The couple tirelessly worked to advocate for refugees to be welcomed to the U.S., knocking on the doors of both the U.S. government and the various churches that had supported them as overseas missionaries.
Evelyn would often work from the hallway of the Alliance denominational offices in Nyack, calling up local churches, pleading with them to take in a refugee family. While some pastors were hesitant, many were eager to welcome refugees into their communities.
Evelyn recalls one pastor who initially declined to help, saying his church was busy working on a parking lot project. Evelyn responded, “But these are people!”
More often than not, however, local churches stepped up to the challenge, meeting newly arrived families at the airport, welcoming them into their homes on a temporary basis, and eventually helping them to find permanent housing, jobs, and everything else necessary to restart their lives in a new culture.
In a single year, Alliance churches welcomed more than 10,000 refugees who had fled Vietnam and from conflicts in neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
​​As refugees from Southeast Asia continued to arrive, Grady and Evelyn ran out of Alliance congregations to call upon. Evelyn was undeterred. She began cold-calling pastors from the directory of the National Association of Evangelicals, expanding her outreach to Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Wesleyans, and others. When she encountered resistance—understandable in the political context, given that most Americans disapproved of the effort to resettle Vietnamese refugees at the time — Evelyn would remind them of the repeated injunctions in Scripture to care for vulnerable “strangers.
Partnering With World Relief
In 1979, this effort that had initially been coordinated by the Christian & Missionary Alliance’s CAMA Services and then through Lutheran World Relief was brought under the auspices of World Relief — the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Up until then, World Relief had been focused on empowering churches to care for vulnerable and displaced people overseas., But under the leadership of Grady and Evelyn Mangham, began its U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Grady Mangham continued to lead World Relief’s refugee resettlement program until 1987, resettling an average of 6,300 refugees annually from countries all around the world. Since then, several of Grady and Evelyn’s children and grandchildren have served World Relief in various capacities.
The refugee resettlement program that Evelyn helped to found has now resettled roughly 300,000 refugees to communities throughout the United States.
In the coming months, World Relief anticipates receiving between 7,000 and 10,000 individuals who have recently fled Afghanistan in an evacuation with many historical parallels to the refugee crisis in Vietnam that sparked Evelyn and Grady Mangham’s ministry. The local church remains central to our mission, just as it was when Evelyn and Grady founded the program.
The World Relief family throughout the globe grieves Evelyn’s death — but not without hope, confident in the resurrection through Christ that was Evelyn’s greatest hope. And we celebrate the incredible legacy of Evelyn and Grady’s life and ministry.
Even into her last years of life, living in Florida, Evelyn always would greet refugees from the Middle East with a smile, singing with them the Arabic songs she remembered from her childhood.
As refugee resettlement has become increasingly controversial in recent years, including within evangelical churches, Evelyn was asked how she would advise Christians who felt reluctant to engage in refugee ministry:
Well, respond to what Jesus said, that’s all: “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger” — refugee — “and you took me in… Inasmuch as you did unto of the least of these my brethren, you did unto me.” It’s simple obedience.
*elements of this reflection were drawn from a 2016 article written by Matthew Soerens for Christianity Today.
Matthew Soerens is the US Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief, where he helps evangelical churches to understand the realities of refugees and immigration and to respond in ways guided by biblical values. He also serves as the National Coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that advocates for immigration reforms consistent with biblical values.
Four Ways We Can Improve Our Immigration System
Over the past several months, Americans have been inundated with news and imagery from the U.S.-Mexico border. As policies have shifted, historically high numbers of people have arrived, including many intending to seek asylum in the United States.
People often ask me how we, as Christians, should respond to stories like these. We want to fix the problem and end the suffering, but, sadly, hard policy problems like asylum and refugee resettlement are much more complicated than the “easy fixes” hinted at in the headlines.
For one, the U.S. is particularly unprepared for this influx of people seeking refuge because our immigration system has been essentially dismantled over the last several years — both as a result of intentional policy decisions and by the COVID-19 pandemic — and it is taking time to rebuild it. We and our network of faith-based and community organizations are eager to partner with the government to care for vulnerable people, but currently lack the resources and workforce to handle this surge.
Nonetheless, the country is bound by various international treaties and domestic laws to give a hearing to particular categories of migrants, including unaccompanied children and anyone facing a credible fear of persecution. We cannot abandon either these national commitments or our celebrated heritage as a place of opportunity and new beginnings for those seeking refuge.
We need to seek change. A fair and humane solution to immigration policy and asylum issues will take time, patience, funding and focused political attention. Here are four ways we can change our immigration system in a comprehensive and humane way.
1. We must address the root causes driving asylum seekers to come to the U.S. in the first place.
Along with many Americans motivated by personal faith and the best of our national values, we are eager to welcome those who seek refuge in the U.S. But that eagerness is paired with lament; we grieve that anyone would feel they had no choice but to leave their homes and their countries of origin.
The factors that push people to flee countries such as Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala include poverty, high rates of violent crime, environmental degradation and corruption. Finding themselves in grim circumstances, families make what is often a heart-wrenching decision to flee their homes for a better life.
The United States can first address the rise in asylum cases by working with other governments and organizations to make home for refugees a safe place, rather than a dangerous one. This can be done through diplomatic negotiations with governments and financial support for local and international NGOs working to create opportunity and improve safety for families. By being more proactive in this effort and increasing both U.S. governmental aid as well as churches, businesses and individuals stepping up their support, fewer families will feel compelled to make the journey to the southern border.
2. We can increase resources for processing asylum claims as a means of disincentivizing unlawful entry into the country.
Because legal asylum claims often take too long to find a legal hearing, many individuals cross the border illegally in the hopes that they will be apprehended and then given the hearing to which they are legally entitled. We can bring order to the border simply by investing in the right kinds of resources. If we can fairly and efficiently handle the rising volume of asylum claims, we can divert asylum seekers away from dangerous border crossings and to lawful ports of entry.
3. We can increase orderly, legal migration options accessible closer to home.
Most people who make a dangerous journey to the border do so because that’s the only way to lawfully request asylum. But if there was an option to request protections closer to home, either at a nearby U.S. consulate or in a neighboring country, most people would much prefer to reach safety in the U.S. via an airplane flight after being processed and vetted overseas. In fact, that’s basically the model of the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which has been functioning well for decades. For those fleeing poverty, not persecution, additional employer-sponsored visas would also create increased opportunities for lawful migration — while helping to address a stark labor shortage within the U.S. that is fueling inflation and economic stagnation.
4. We need bipartisan action by Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
While expanding refugee resettlement could be done by executive action, many other changes to the legal immigration system — such as facilitating legal immigration options for those fleeing poverty and seeking to fill needs in the U.S. labor market — would require congressional action. Those changes could be paired with a host of other reforms to our immigration laws. Immigration reform, however, will require bipartisan cooperation between the new administration and both political parties. Securing bipartisan cooperation now can ensure we move beyond quick fixes and make lasting changes for years to come.
We need to invest in better immigration policies that can spur economic growth, protect our national security and offer comfort to the vulnerable. But change will not happen overnight. Our short-term efforts to alleviate suffering should not come at the expense of the broader reforms needed for an effective—and more humane—immigration policy.
I encourage you to educate yourself about some of the pressing issues surrounding immigration policies, lean into hard conversations and risk feeling uncomfortable. Together, we can raise our voices in support of those whose voices are often ignored, marginalized or overlooked. We can be advocates for those fleeing violence, poverty and oppression and respond to their cries for help — just as our heavenly Father listens and responds to us.
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This blog was originally published on July 8th, 2021 and was recently updated on May 26th 2023.
Scott Arbeiter retired from World Relief in 2021 as president after serving the organization in various roles for more than two decades and is a former pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
Matt Soerens began his World Relief journey in 2005 as an intern in Nicaragua and now serves as the VP of Advocacy and Policy. Since then he served as a Department of Justice-accredited legal counselor in Chicagoland before assuming the role of U.S. Director of Church Mobilization and Advocacy. Matt is the co-author of three books including Welcoming the Stranger (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and Inalienable (InterVarsity Press, 2022). Matt also serves as the National Coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that advocates for immigration reforms consistent with biblical values. He is a graduate of Wheaton College, where he has also served as a guest faculty member in the Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership program, and earned a master’s degree from DePaul University’s School of Public Service. He lives in Aurora, Illinois with his wife Diana and their four children.