QuakerSpeak explores Friends’ perspectives on immigration, reframing the common notion that “we have an immigration problem.”

5 Things Your Congregation Can Do to Support Immigrant Justice

Resources:

Discussion Questions:

Many of us have immigrants in our family history. What stories do we know of our ancestors’ movement—voluntary or coerced? What was it like to live in a new land?

According to immigration rights worker Lori Khamala, “As Quakers we have a lot more that we can offer this conversation, about how we acknowledge the light of God in every individual, how we treat people in general, how we accept a biblical mandate of welcoming the stranger.” Do you agree? What do we have to offer?

Transcript:

Lori Fernald Khamala

I disagree when I hear people talk about an immigration “problem.” There is no problem with immigration. Immigration is not the problem. People move. People have always moved.

The problem is policies that criminalize our immigrant brothers and sisters. The problem is policies which are tearing apart families and which are not honoring the human dignity of our brothers and sisters who were born in another land.

My name is Fatima Cisse. I’m 24 years old, and when I was 11, my mom was deported back to the Ivory Coast. I just remember coming home from school and my father told me that she had been arrested, and I was shocked because my mom was never into any trouble before. It was shocking.

The Impact on Families

In our culture, the mom is the one who takes care of the children and the home and everything, so we lost all of that, and my father, we barely saw him—working two jobs and trying to pay off the bills and everything. So it was very hard on us. There’s a lot of pain behind that. We feel lonely and not all the way together, like there’s broken pieces in a puzzle.

Lori Fernald Khamala

We see millions of children living in mixed status families. This means that they may be US citizens, but at least one parent is undocumented. We have millions of children living in this mixed status situation which produces a tremendous amount of uncertainty and fear of loss of a parent to deportation.

Pedro Rios

When politicians will make disparaging remarks about Mexicans or about people from other countries, it’s usually because it’s coming from a place of fear or a place of ignorance, or a place of not really having had the opportunity to meet and to know and to interact with migrants who are newly arrived in this country.

Healing Our Communities

Fatima Cisse

Finally, at age 16, a friend of my father’s introduced us to the American Friends Service, and they gave us a better picture about immigration and explained to us that when I turn 21, I could be able to apply for my Mom to come to the country. I finally turned 21 and we put the papers in. It was like a dream come true. It took a long time, I almost gave up at one point, but I feel very happy. I feel like my family is back together.

Pedro Rios

So what would a community look like that has been healed? I think that’s a great question that we face, ourselves, because we are in a process of constant healing. I think one of the dialogue processes would be entering into a conversation about how we walk together, shoulder to shoulder, and that’s one aspect that the American Friends Service Committee has done. They provide the resources where we can walk together with communities.

Lori Fernald Khamala

I believe as Quakers we have a lot more that we can offer this conversation, about how we acknowledge the light of God in every individual, how we treat people in general, how we accept a biblical mandate of welcoming the stranger.

Pedro Rios

If you are a Quaker who wants to get involved and wants to participate in the issue of immigration, I would say, begin with your local Meeting or begin with local organizations that you are already in contact with. It would be a process of, essentially, building from where you know and finding ways of connecting and being in solidarity with communities elsewhere.

Lori Fernald Khamala

So I would encourage everyone to invite speakers to your Meetings, to your congregations, to your offices, to your school groups, because there’s people out there who are willing to share their stories.

I really encourage Quakers, other people of faith out there, to get involved with the local immigrant rights movement or the local center that’s working on immigration issues, because I think we can start by being good partners.

The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.

