In the Beginning

Forced Migration in Genesis 3 and 4

If you begin reading the Bible at the beginning, it doesn’t take long before we find patterns of migration.  The first recorded incident is found in Genesis 3.  Adam and Eve, given all they would need to thrive by God, reject his ways and provision, and find themselves correspondingly driven from the Garden.  Though we traditionally focus on the consequences for sin being pain in childbirth and agricultural challenges, perhaps the most significant of all the results of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is forced migration.  Homelessness.  Restlessness.  And humanity has been on the move since then, seeking that location where we can be at peace with each other, with the creation in which we live, and ultimately with God.

This rest has indeed been elusive for humanity.  So much so that Scripture refers to salvation itself as re-entry into God’s rest (Heb 4:1-11).  From the record of creation itself, we are invited to return to God and enter his rest.  Such entry, however, requires complete submission to God as God.  Adam and Eve’s sin was, in its essence, rejection of God’s place in their lives.   They substituted a new set of values—the enjoyment of that which was pleasant to the eye and the achievement of knowledge (and with it, power)—above God’s values.  And as a result, they were banished from Eden, forbidden re-entry.  They would toil, searching for suitable land in which to live and survive.  Their families would likewise toil, to this very day, fighting each other in this race to establish a sustainable and comfortable life.  We are, indeed, all migrating between heaven and hell, aliens from our genuine home, and apart from Christ, we are strangers and aliens from God.

Not long after the garden episode we encounter yet another forced migration.  Cain, beset with jealousy over how his brother gained a favourable response from God for his sacrifice, decided the only way forward was the ultimate violence of murder.  The result: further hardship in agricultural pursuits, but more profoundly, continuous migration.  Cain is deeply disturbed and worried, saying, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me” (Gen. 4:13b-14).  We aren’t told where these other people came from, only that Cain was concerned that he will be ostracized and at risk, endangered by emigration into hostile lands.

Migration as a result of brokenness and sin

It is indeed striking that each of the first two Scriptural references to migration are records of forced migration. Brokenness and sin lay at the heart of migration stories, but unlike the stories of Adam, Eve and Cain, migration today is not necessarily the result of the migrant’s sin.  Indeed, it is very rare that someone is displaced because of his or her own sin.  It is, rather, the result of the sins of others.  People flee war torn societies, trying to avoid being caught in the cross fire.  Young men flee warlords who seek to draw them into servitude in their armies.  Other young men flee the oppressive regimes that will force them into a life in the army where their chances of surviving ongoing clashes with rebels or drug lords are uncertain.  Young women and children flee being sold into sexual slavery or indentured factory work.  

Much to the contrary of contemporary North American rhetoric, people arriving in Canada and the United States as asylum seekers are not terrorists.  Certainly some do seek to sneak in this way, but their numbers in comparison to others who are fleeing for their lives as miniscule.  The presence of these fraudulent claims makes the cause of the vulnerable that much more difficult.  And it is what makes the work of adjudicators so challenging.  As Rupert Colville, former editor of the UNHCR periodical, Refugee, explains, “There are people who articulate a false story well, and people who articulate a true story badly – or not at all (because it is too painful and too personal)” Refugees; 2007:148 p. 2).   

Further, it is completely ridiculous to assert, as has the current Canadian government, that because one finds passage to the west in a ship, one is a terrorist, being trafficked, or are migrants seeking a shortcut to the current system.  What is needed in Canada is careful investment in the Immigration Review Board: finding qualified people who are then trained and regularly upgrading their skills, who can sift through the very difficult process of verifying asylum claims.  What is not needed is a regression to closing our borders, rejecting people cart-blanche because of the country from which they are fleeing or the nations in which they have stopped along the way.  What is needed is moral courage to recognize the obligation we have as a nation toward justice for the poor, the oppressed, and the vulnerable.  And if this is the case for Canada, how much more is it so for the church?

Consider the plight of Romani children in Hungary who are forced into schools for the less skilled as if there is something wrong with the whole population, and are then ridiculed and systematically abused by nationals while the national police force turns a blind eye.  Consider also the story of Assyrian Christians fleeing northern Iraq for fear of religious persecution.  And then there is Columbia—widely recognized as one of the top producers of displaced peoples in the world.  Farmers fleeing drug lords are not safe in the cities as some have suggested (propaganda put forth by governments seeking to ignore human rights issues in order to secure trade agreements).  All these people would love to return to their home, but they cannot (and, in my estimation, should not be forced to return to places where they feel unsafe).  And the reason they are displaced?  Sin.  Individual sins of their oppressors and systemic sins of societies that ignore their plight or who value economic gain over justice.  Can you hear the echo of the Old Testament prophets?

Sin has broken the bonds between people, the mutual responsibility we have to one another.  And like Adam and Eve—and later Cain—these people find life in a new land is hardly as receptive and positive as they had hoped.  Unwanted, many fly under the radar, undocumented, misunderstood, working cash jobs for pauper’s wages, often being manipulated into new abusive and controlling relationships.  Asylum itself becomes another form of bondage.  And while many would take this new suffering over the suffering in their home land, remaining silent, we must not.  Abuses to migrants who come by regular means (i.e. according to the laws and systems set up by international bodies) or irregular means (i.e. undocumented, sneaking across the Vermont-Quebec border into Canada or the Rio Grande from Mexico into the USA) is simply unacceptable in our society and must be confronted—not by punishing the vulnerable asylum seeker, but by punishing the powerful who treat these people like commodities to be used and thrown out when they are no longer needed.

A clash of values

When we extend a hand of welcome and of love, we embody the love of God to all humanity.  He seeks to welcome ALL into his rest.  He went through great personal loss to secure our return to him, knowing all are powerless to make our own way.  So too, forced migrants are at the mercy of powers they cannot control.  These people are completely vulnerable and often as not, abused by those with power and money.  Are we right to expect them all to stop in refugee camps—places of violence themselves—a stop that can be interminable, waiting for the wealthy of the world to decide their fate?  Should we be surprised that many seek to avoid these camps and find their own way out of a life of hopeless waiting?  It is estimated that less than 10% of refugees in camps will ever see the light of home or a new country by working the system.  Waiting in a refugee camp is a far cry from an entrepreneur waiting for permanent residence papers and to make such characterizations as politicians have been doing in Canada is scandalous and deplorable.

I truly believe God is calling the church to open her heart to the migrant—regular and irregular—to look beyond what it may cost us to, instead, focus on reflecting the gospel of Christ above all.  To seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, to pursue the experience of his will on earth as it is in heaven—that is the call of the church in the face of social ills.  So much more is at stake than our financial well being.  Live—yes, souls—are at stake.  What are our driving values behind our response to migrants?

Immigration--How important of an election issue?

An Eye Opening Experience

Yesterday I had the privilege of engaging with a group of high school students of Roma background who fled persecution in Hungary within the last two years.  What a powerful story!  I was moved to tears by the way the students portrayed the way they were treated in Hungary.  Roma families are systematically abused in many Eastern European countries.  For example, in Hungary, ALL Roma students are placed in special education institutions.  Though they represent 10% of the population of the country, they represent 65% of students in special education!  They are never taught about their own history--a history dating back over 1000 years to a flight from S. Asia in response to persecution and oppression they were facing there.  For centuries Roma people have been subjugated to terrible oppressions.  And what a thrill it was to watch these four high school students share their story and issues with us.  And what an emotional turn when I asked them this question: "What are your dreams now that you are in Canada?  Are you encouraged to dream big?"  (I, of course, have three daughters near their age.  Their response?  We don't dare dream because we expect to be deported back to Hungary.

It got me thinking.  Did you know that just a couple years ago BEFORE the Canadian Minister of Immigration, Jason Kinney, went on record alleging "bogus refugee claims", almost 80% of asylum claims by Roma families were ACCEPTED?  After the repeated claims of the government about the Roma were made, the reversal was profound.  Today very few Roma claims are accepted.  Why?  Because Canada wants to be on good ECONOMIC terms with Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Consider another case: Refugee claimants from Columbia used to be accepted at a rate of 84%.  BUT the government of Canada recently signed a free trade agreement with Columbia.  They now claim that families facing danger in Columbia can safely move to one of a couple major cities.  BUT the truth is that these cities are NOT safe.  Families are tracked down and eliminated by drug lords.  Further, the Conservative government is seeking to remove the special status that used to be in existence for Columbia: the ability to apply for refugee status WITHIN the country.  NOW Colombian acceptance rates have dropped below 50% and are expected to drop further--all for the sake of free trade.

Finally, consider how much Jason Kinney emphasizes that he believes refugees should line up and walk through the system patiently.  He is seeking to reduce the time allowed for claims and appeals.  All these things favour people with money; people with connections; people who, in short, are not nearly as vulnerable as so many who have historically sought out our nation for refuge.

Psalm 72 ... A Canadian Legacy?

It's a little known fact that Psalm 72 lay behind the 1867 official title of Canada: "Dominion of Canada"--Dominion from sea to sea.  In 1867 this was a move to allay the fears of American manifest destiny that rejected the notion of a "kingdom" on the continent other than itself.  (Note how the Alaskan panhandle was purchased from the Russians at the exact same time as Canada negotiated its sovereignty from British rule).  Dominion had shades of meaning, but for the fathers of Confederation--men who knew their Bible--rest Psalm 72.  

John Rolston Saul calls Psalm 72 a "psalm of welfare" and, I believe, he is right.  Dominion here speaks of power.  And according to the psalm, this power was to be used for the welfare of the most vulnerable.  Notice how strong God speaks about the necessity of justice.  The respect due the king was due to the following:

 ¹²For he delivers the needy when he calls,
   the poor and him who has no helper.
¹³He has pity on the weak and the needy,
   and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
   and precious is their blood in his sight.

At the beginning of the Psalm Solomon request:

²May he judge your people with righteousness,
   and your poor with justice!
^...
4May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
   give deliverance to the children of the needy,
   and crush the oppressor!

At the heart of so much of the criticism of the prophets to Israel and Judah was their failure PRECISELY to care for the poor and vulnerable in society.  I, for one, am deeply troubled over the way our nation has gone from being internationally celebrated for its compassion and responsiveness to refugees to where it is today, criticized by the UN for its harsh stances, witnessing a profound drop in refugee claims (30% since the Conservatives took office).

We are a wealthy nation.

We have come through the global financial crisis virtually untarnished.  

Political parties may war over who is more responsible for this--Cretien and Martin Liberals or Harper Conservatives.  

But one thing to me is clear: to him who is given much, much is expected.  

How can we sit by and allow our financial aims and priorities cloud our judgment and interfere with our sense of justice?