Immigration and asylum
The Church and immigration policy
Global migration is a reality at the beginning of the
twenty-first century. Migration policy has become a key
concern for all communities. Churches are aware of the gift of
migrants within their own lives, as well as the tensions that can
emerge. When engaging with migration issues the Church seeks
to clarify issues of justice and understand the forces behind the
movement of people (economic, persecution, climate change, war,
civil unrest).
Migration is a global phenomenon, often unpredictable. In 2004 the General Synod of the Church of England called on HMG to 'to raise public awareness of the global phenomenon of migration including the needs of asylum seekers, economic migrants and displaced people and the disproportionate burden borne by developing countries'.
In 2007 Churches Together in Britain and Ireland suggested the following core principles for churches working on migration issues:
Core Principles
- Christian believe that all people are created equal in dignity, made in the image of God.
- As Christians, we fully accept our obligations as citizens of the countries in which we live…[but] do not attribute absolute value to the rights and privileges of nationality and citizenship.
- Christians affirm that people moving from one part of the world to another contribute their gifts and valuable qualities…to the country where they come live.
- Christian belief in a personal God states good relationships as the foundation of community cohesi
Migration Principles: Statement for Churches Working with Migrants and Engaging with Migration Issues Churches Together in Britain and Ireland 2007
Churches and asylum seekers
In recent years local churches have found themselves
facing new and at times
distressing challenges with increasing numbers of asylum seekers
facing greater
financial and personal insecurity. Churches have often responded
generously welcoming asylum seekers as part of congregations, and
collaboratively, often in new coalitions across towns, boroughs or
cities providing support, advice, education or just space for newly
arrived communities to begin to organise themselves.
Congregations have offered hospitality and found their
perceptions and world view radically altered - whether through
giving space to congregations from different linguistic or
denominational groups, or welcoming Christians, or members of
other
faith communities, to worship and prayer. Experience of individual
cases has often ledto clergy and congregations becoming involved in
appeals and the legalities surrounding removals. This engagement
has often been drawn on when Bishops have intervened during the
passage of legislation in the House of Lords.
Asylum Principles is an ecumenical statement of theological principles for the churches' work on asylum issues.
Synod resoloution and statements
Our Christian task is remembering and recognising how Christ suffers in the stranger, remembering and recognising how Christ is to be seen, in wonder and joy, in the stranger, whose life is now bound up with mine. We as believers have the unenviable job of trying to hear and interpret the wounds of everyone involved and to ask for the justice of the Bible, a situation in which each acts for the good of the other. This is what the church is supposed to be and show a place of justice
Archbishop Rowan Williams
