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Migration is central to the human story and to God’s story. In partnership with IVP, we invite you to reflect on what it means to cultivate a heart of a migrant and to see God’s mercy at work through movement, change and belonging. The following piece is adapted from Migration, Session 2 “Manifesto”.
God wants to cultivate the heart of a migrant in each of us.
Most of us are drawn to a sense of home. But, sometimes, moving is necessary. No matter our reasons for leaving, it is a significant and emotional transition.
God is no stranger to these feelings. In Scripture, we rarely see people staying put. Abraham, Joseph and his brothers, Naomi, Ruth, the disciples, and Paul all left familiar settings for new horizons at various points in their lives (Genesis 12:1-9; 37:12-28; 46:1-7; Ruth 1; Matthew 4:18-22; Acts 8:1-8; 13).
Migration has always been part of the human story, and it is central to the ultimate Story. Jesus was born away from his parents’ home (Luke 2:1-7); fled as a young boy to another region (Matthew 2:13-15); lived his adult life constantly on the move (Matthew 8:18-20); and told his disciples to spread the good news to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:6-9). He had a particular ethnicity, homeland, and language, yet he didn’t solely experience life within those boundaries. Jesus had the heart of a migrant.
Do we have this same heart? Would we allow God to cultivate the heart of a migrant in us? Jesus shows us that our belonging comes in following wherever God leads, seeking our sense of home wherever we end up.
Migration today may look different from Bible times, and it often leads to particular political debates. But theologian Jules Martínez-Olivieri explains that although migration has historically been an extremely fluid concept, affected by changing borders, changing laws, and changing push-pull factors, migration has always been central to the human experience. And God shows a special love for his people when they are on the move.
Essay Excerpt:
“Immigrants as the Face and History of Globalization” by Jules Martínez-Olivieri
“Humanity is fundamentally a story of migration” (Laila Lalami, Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America, [New York: Pantheon Books, 2020], 70).
These are the words of Moroccan American novelist and essayist Laila Lalami. Migration is an essential element of the life of peoples and a reality that shapes human history and redemptive history.
People migrate for different reasons. Sometimes they have a choice about moving; other times they are forced to move. With voluntary migration, people have reasons to either leave a place (push factors) or reasons to be attracted to a place (pull factors). Humans have been moving in response to these push and pull factors for millennia.
There are many types of borders beyond geopolitical boundaries: ideological, cultural, political, ethnic, spiritual, economic, etc. Thus, our main criterion for identifying the migrant border crosser cannot be reduced to those who simply lack residency or legal documentation in a territorially bounded sovereign country. Rather, we need to see that migration, in many forms, has always been a human reality.
The Fact and Fluidity of Borders
Nevertheless, the concept of borders is a perpetual sociopolitical fact with an awful history of abuse and suffering designed to protect the welfare of geographically, racially, or ethnically defined nation-states. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first time in the United States that a “federal law proscribed [prohibited] entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities”. This law not only placed requirements on Chinese people trying to immigrate to the United States but also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already arrived. As economic competition and struggle increased, anti-Chinese animosity became the scapegoat for moneymaking and political gains.
Geopolitical boundaries also change over time. The US-Mexican border was not always where it is today. In 1821, the year Mexico declared its independence from Spain, its territory included California, Texas, and the land in between. However, after the Mexican-American War in 1848, 55 percent of Mexico’s territory was ceded to the United States. Mexico had ended slavery by 1830; nevertheless, when White Americans formed the independent Republic of Texas, they reinstated slavery. “By the time the US annexed the territory,” journalist Becky Little explains, “its enslaved population had grown from 5,000 to 30,000”.
(Little, “The Violent History of the U.S.-Mexico Border,” History.com, www.history.com/news/mexico-border-wall -military-facts)
Being an immigrant is not an objective status; it’s a fluid designation that changes when territories change.
PAUSE & REFLECT
What are other examples from history or today where borders/fences/walls were used to harm a person or people group?
Migration Necessitates Change—for All of Us
Currently, there are more than 272 million international migrants in the world. Migration plays a major role in the economy, politics, and social structure of the majority of countries in the world. This also involves the convergences of cultures, traditions, aesthetics, art, music, values, food, and human needs. The increased interconnectivity caused by migration facilitates the need for—and catalyzes—the innovation of ideas, culture, and technology.
US immigration policy, which has not been significantly updated in thirty-five years, is an area in which innovation is sorely needed. Over 10 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States right now. Authorized immigration to the United States is generally limited to three different routes: (1) employment (where, in most cases, an employer must petition for the worker), (2) family reunification, or (3) humanitarian protection. Unfortunately, many aspiring residents are not eligible for these options, despite the fact that most immigrants to the United States have left their homeland, family, and friends due to severe economic hardship, violence, and dangerous political instability. In past times, migration was a natural respite for such conditions.
What Migration Means for Christians
As Christians, we cannot reduce immigrants to geopolitical conceptions. We commit atrocities and dehumanize those who are our neighbors when we see migrant foreigners as a threat, a risk, or an unknown to our “sacred” political, economic, geographical, and cultural realities and traditions.
A more humane and theological approach centers the plight of those who suffer a forced disconnection from their family, the deprived who transit to another land, and those who come seeking relationships that enhance their capacity to flourish.
Through migration, our values, faith, and churches are renewed. The reality of the migrant experience challenges us as Christians to be more just and charitable. We come to realize that, as the Jesuit priest Jon Sobrino beautifully states in his book The Principle of Mercy, “In the beginning was mercy.” This mercy for the foreigner compels us to embody Jesus, announce the kingdom of God, and denounce everything that harms the vulnerable as anti-kingdom. This is achieved only when the suffering of others is internalized and becomes a joyful orthopathos, a passioned identification with the other for whom God’s love is extended through us. Through migration, God changes our hearts.
God wants to cultivate the heart of a migrant in each of us.
BENEDICTION
Throughout history, recitations of shared beliefs have helped reinforce our connection to one another, no matter where we are from. To close, read the benediction.
Lord, help us to honor and more deeply understand our own migration stories. Help us to celebrate the mosaic of cultures, lands, and experiences that make us each unique. Foster in us the heart of a migrant: full of faith, courage, and hope in your good plans for us. Help us to find ultimate belonging in you and the family of God.
In the words of the author of Hebrews, we pray for the heritage of our faithful ancestors:
“They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
Lord, may it be so for us. Amen.
For further reflection, click on the link below and listen to the poem by Frank Espinoza on the generational effects of migration.
“Welcome to My Vida” – Frank Espinoza
Adapted from Migration by Alexis Busetti and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun. ©2025 by Made for PAX. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com.
Alexis Busetti (MHR, MDiv) is currently pursuing a PhD in Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. She hosts the That Makes Total Sense! podcast and is committed to journeying toward the heart of God, exploring his generosity and justice, seeking out how to live it every single day. Alexis lives in Houston with her husband, Seth, and their four amazing children. ABOUT Alexis Busetti
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is an award-winning writer, editor, speaker, and nonprofit professional. She has been the editorial director of PAX, the director of communications for d.light, a social innovation instructor, and a communications consultant for social-benefit companies around the world. A Silicon Valley native, Dorcas has also lived in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Nairobi, Kenya. Dorcas and her husband have been married for nineteen years and have two sons. ABOUT Dorcas Cheng-Tozun