Retirement is wonderful! For the first time in your life, you don’t have to do anything.
Those uncongenial jobs, which even the boss can’t avoid, are gone forever. So when the bishop asked me to serve as part-time chaplain at our local immigration centre, I started thinking. Is this job congenial? Is it worthwhile? What would Jesus do?
First, I thought about anthropology.
Natural migrants
Human beings are characterised by migration. It was 60,000 years ago that a small group, maybe an extended family of about 200 modern humans, walked out of Africa and eventually populated the rest of the world.
All of us non-Africans can trace our DNA back to a first woman migrant 3,000 generations ago. Maybe this is reflected in the old tales of Adam and Eve leaving the garden and Cain being a wanderer on earth.
Migration was the defining characteristic of Abraham and the Israelites who were required above all to care for the stranger, remembering they were strangers in the land of Egypt.
To relate to migrants is to relate to humans as they truly are.
Then Christology.
The most ambitious, risky and far-reaching migration in history took place when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
He left his Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite his grace,
Emptied himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
So where would I be most likely to meet Jesus? In the academic halls of nearby Cambridge, or among the desperate inhabitants of the detention centre?
Didn’t he say, “I was a stranger and you took me in...As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me”?
Out of the depths
Finally, ecclesiology. Just as the gospel is news not only about peace with God but about peace with one another, those who are far off and those who are near, so the Church is a company which by its very nature must embrace people of all races and classes, breaking down every barrier. But in many of our churches it is difficult to see this.
Don’t we have a moral duty to offer hospitality to those whose livelihoods are threatened by our self-indulgent way of life?
Yet in our detention centre’s chapel all colours, nations, languages and classes are represented.
And out of the depths of fear and helplessness, the worship is exuberant, the Bible studies serious, the praying and fasting intense.
As Jean-Louis, from the Ivory Coast, said, “It’s a miracle! I did not know you could find God in a place like this!”
So I accepted. Here are some of the people and stories I have encountered as a result.
Christian converts in Iran, Pakistan, northern Nigeria and Pentecostals in Eritrea face violence from family, neighbours and government. Those who seek asylum in the UK are normally assumed to be lying, and Home Office lawyers contest most cases.
In the case of Ruth, I had seen her lead chapel worship with such a spirit that I could support her claim in court, successfully.
But Nermin, a new Christian, fled Iran with her son and husband – who supported her in her new faith and eventually shared it. The family were baptised, but were refused asylum because the judge assumed a Muslim husband could not love and respect his wife as much as that.
Another young woman, refused asylum and returned to Iran, was imprisoned, and tortured before she escaped again. This time the Medical Foundation examined her and supported her appeal.
Many teenagers are trafficked for domestic or sexual slavery. After months or years they may escape but by so doing become illegal and may be arrested and given a prison sentence; deportation often follows, without anyone giving them time, traumatised as they are, to tell their story.
One never-ending concern is for the families of those arrested and deported.
Illegal immigrants have often lived here for five to 10 years, worked, and established stable families. But they will be arrested in dawn raids, to the deep distress of partners and children whom they may never see again.
One ‘abandoned’ wife in Ipswich, pregnant with their third child, immediately became homeless until, many weeks later, a Christian woman intervened with the local council to get her accommodation.
Take action
Apart from arranging worship, prayer and Bible study, chaplains can at least listen. We can talk to lawyers, recover personal belongings, network with Christian communities; anything to humanise and Christianise the experience of detainees.
There are major proposals for reforming the immigration and asylum system, but there are also many ways the ordinary person can put caring for the stranger into practice:
-
enrol as a Visitor at your local immigration centre;
-
make friends with an asylum seeker or the family of a detainee in your locality
-
support local diocesan or ecumenical Churches’ Refugee Networks
-
support
CHASTE
or the
POPPY Project
which give sanctuary to trafficked women
-
stand surety for bail applications (see
Bail Circle
or
BID
)
-
lobby the relevant MP if you discover an urgent case of inhumanity or injustice
What is the future of immigration?
As long as the rich world takes no action over trade injustice and climate change, it will increase. People migrate for the same reason as our ancestors from Africa so long ago: survival.
Don’t we have a moral duty to offer hospitality to those whose livelihoods are threatened by our self-indulgent way of life?
Finally, a football analogy from Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the UN.
“The World Cup illustrates the benefits of cross-pollination. National teams now welcome coaches from other countries, who bring new ways of thinking and playing. The same goes for players...they inject fresh qualities...and then contribute more to their home side when they return.
"I wish it were equally plain for all to see that human migration can create triple wins – for migrants, for their country of origin, and for the societies that receive them.”
J Roger Bowen served as a mission partner in Tanzania and on the staff of St John’s College Nottingham. He is a former General Secretary of Crosslinks.