In this Salvationist.ca series entitled Talking It Over, Captain Amy Reardon, Editor of Young Salvationist, U.S.A. National Headquarters, and Dr. James Read, Executive Director of The Salvation Army Ethics Centre in Winnipeg, dialogue about moral and ethical issues. The current conversation focuses on immigration and ethnic diversity.

Dear Jim,

As you know, I grew up in the Greater Los Angeles Area. As a Californian, I thought I lived in the most culturally eclectic place in the world. But when I became engaged to a Canadian and went to Toronto, I realized I was mistaken. I’d never seen the ethnic variety Toronto has to offer. What an exciting city! The first time I visited, I couldn’t help but wonder how so many immigrants could come to the country with no trouble. I knew it wasn’t easy to get into America.

Actually, the American process was more laborious than I thought. Though our case was atypical, my husband didn’t receive his permanent “green card” until we’d been married more than 12 years. But people can’t tell he’s a foreigner just by looking at him. I always enjoy watching the surprise and approval on the faces of immigrants from more exotic places when they learn my husband is “one of them” and they hear of the struggles he endured with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Still, as a Canadian moved south, he does have the advantage of melding into a culture that’s not too different from his own. But in Toronto, with its extravagant mix of peoples, I wonder what it would be like to move to a land where everything is different from home. What if I couldn’t speak the language? Perhaps I would find myself in some ethnic ghetto, an indistinguishable face among many. Perhaps I’d meet barriers while in pursuit of a job, even if I could speak the language. We’ve all heard tales of immigrants who were doctors or lawyers in their country of origin who took a job earning a low hourly wage once they came to North America. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of hard work, but there is a sense of loss when one considers that the man bagging your groceries was trained to treat your allergies or defend you in a lawsuit.

It is not unusual for the Army to structure a corps to meet the needs of a certain ethnic group. I’ve seen quite a number of Latino, Korean and Chinese corps. The segregation this causes is a concern for me. But I suppose if I had just moved to El Salvador, I’d be very excited to find a corps where I could worship in my own language, sing the songs I knew and eat American food at a potluck dinner. So I understand the need for ethnically-
based corps.

Although these corps generally flourish, the subject of immigrants remains unaddressed at most “regular” corps. While the Army can take pride in the way its social services and ethnic corps address cultural needs, what have we done to teach the rest of our soldiery about reaching out to immigrants? Have we built walls between us as we develop ethnic corps, without nurturing a link between them and non-ethnic corps?

The Old Testament addresses the issue of immigrants over and over again, which makes me think that God cares very much about their circumstances. Take Leviticus 19:33-34 for example: “When foreigners reside among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigners residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” Jesus put it more succinctly: “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).

I don’t need anybody to train me to take a casserole to a neighbour. I’m talking about something a little deeper. Maybe I want corps to educate their soldiers about the predominant immigrant cultures in their areas. Or maybe I want corps to use their soldiery to set up some sort of service that immigrants need. Maybe corps could train their children, so that junior soldiers don’t make inappropriate jokes or tease others because they are different. I’m not really sure what we need. But I do feel that the Church must do more to extend friendship and love to people transitioning to a new land.
Salvationists are busy people, I know. Jim, do you think this is an issue that is important enough to be added to our mission agendas? 

Amy

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Dear Amy,

I’d say these absolutely are issues for our mission agendas. I’ve shown your letter to a few friends and family members, and it’s been easy to get them talking.

Like your husband, Rob, my wife, Laurie, and I know something of the immigrant experience first-hand. We spent eight years in the U.S.A. Most Americans were very hospitable. Laurie and I felt welcomed and have formed lifelong friendships with people in the three states where we lived. But from the standpoint of the U.S. government, we were always “non-resident aliens,” which didn’t exactly shout, “Make yourself at home.”
By the way, I remember meeting Rob in Denver. (Nice guy, eh?) Didn’t he originally move to the States to take a job with The Salvation Army? This international Army of ours has had a hand in the migration of many people over the years.

Here’s a little Canadian trivia, Amy. Between 1905 and 1930, The Salvation Army was responsible for the immigration into Canada of more than 200,000 people. If you estimate how many kids these immigrants had, there are probably a couple of million people now in Canada who owe their citizenship to The Salvation Army!

I have ethical problems with some aspects of that program (many kids under 14 came without any family; they came from Britain as part of a scheme to strengthen the Britishness of Canada). All the same, there was a core of Christian compassion in it since the Army intentionally opened the way to a land of opportunity for the poor. Canada’s immigration policies are very different nowadays.

What’s that poem in the base of the Statue of Liberty? 

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

Many of us know this is the spirit that brought our families to Canada and the U.S.A. generations ago, but that spirit is largely gone. Today Canada has places for about 250,000 immigrants a year, but preference is given to those with money and education, not the world’s destitute.

According to our government, there are about 11.4 million refugees in the world today. Canada annually resettles 10,000 to 12,000. That seems pretty paltry until I remember that I myself have never been part of a corps that has directly sponsored even one refugee family. This despite the fact that The Salvation Army is a government-recognized refugee sponsor organization.

Of course, it’s not easy to solve these problems. Over half of Toronto’s current population was born outside Canada. And about 150,000 new Canadians arrive there each year. Just accommodating that rate of growth alone is something I can’t fathom, let alone managing the issues of language, food, job-fit and driving style.

But we can’t just shrug and turn away from it just because it’s complex. Not if we want to be Christians. As you say, concerns arising from the migration of people are everywhere in the Bible. You cite Leviticus 19. I’d add Deuteronomy 10:17-19, which says that God is not partial—that God loves the stranger, resident alien, sojourner, migrant (all possible translations of the Hebrew ger) as well as the Israelite; that God provides them with food and clothing, and enjoins the Israelites to love them, too.

What’s unclear to me about the Old Testament vision is whether immigrants are to be assimilated or accommodated—made family or kept at a respectful distance. I find evidence for both.

The New Testament context is different. Israel was a state; the New Testament church wasn’t. So the question of laws governing treatment of aliens doesn’t come up. But the New Testament vision is clear and consistent—everyone in all creation is to have equal “citizenship” under the “lordship” of Jesus Christ. It is indisputable that the good news is for everyone, and that in Christ there is no longer “Jew or Gentile” (see Galatians 3:28).

This is what led William Booth to write “O boundless salvation…the whole world redeeming,” and Bramwell Booth to say (in the context of the First World War), “All lands are my Fatherland because all lands are my Father’s.” The Salvation Army facilitates internationalism because it takes equal access to the gospel seriously.

I am proud of all that. What I am less proud of is what I see as a preference for cultural homogenization. An officer friend with immigration experience says, “Even among Christians you hear such things as: ‘They want to change everything—why don’t they just become like everyone else?’ and ‘Why can’t they just become Canadians and leave all that foreign stuff behind?’ ”

My ideal is one in which diversity-in-unity abounds. I don’t think that’s just because I’ve been brainwashed by current Canadian multiculturalism fads. When I read Acts 2, I see the Spirit validating everyone’s mother tongue. Revelation 7 envisions “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe and people and language.” It makes me hope that there might be Thai soup and French poetry in the age to come. (Reading this, my daughter-in-law suggests that I am “guilty of being ‘entertained’ by ethnicity without interacting on a personal level with people from other cultures. Overcoming the xenophobia that bubbles up with new smells, flavours, sounds and customs is one thing; building community is another.” She’s right!)

I’m not sure if you were there yourself, Amy, but I was thrilled to attend a congress in the U.S.A. West a few years ago and find events being simultaneously translated into 19 languages. It fit my sense of the Kingdom. It held out the promise that you can have unity without uniformity. So, although I know lots of people disagree with me, I say let “ethnic corps” flourish. It might be a logistical headache to do things this way, but some headaches are worth having.

Jim