What does the Bible have to say about immigration?
Question 114 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
This question is from Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded, available in paperback, PDF, and Kindle.
The Bible tells immigrant story after immigrant story: Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden, made refugees by their own sin. Joseph was the victim of fraternal violence and was sold into bondage in the strange land of Egypt. Israel made its exodus from Egypt to the then-unfamiliar Promised Land. Ruth was a foreigner who immigrated to Israel. Christ traveled in foreign lands as an infant fleeing for safety from Herod the Great’s Massacre of the Innocents. Our savior identified with the immigrant, and he included the “stranger” as one of the groups whom he called the “least of these” (Matt 25:34–46).
Scripture speaks clearly on the topic of how God’s faithful are to treat immigrants. The Bible tells us that foreigners who come to our country must be afforded equal legal rights to people who are native-born (Exod 12:49, Lev 24:22). More than that, we are to love them as we love ourselves (Lev 19:33–34). Immigrants are a segment of the community who are worthy objects of our charity (Deut 10:14–22). Indeed, it is an outward mark of a righteous man that his door is “always open to the traveler” (Job 31:32). Israel was reminded by God of its heritage as a people who were once strangers in a strange land, and instructed that it would be hypocritical for them to mistreat the alien (Deut 24:19–22). God warns of judgment for those who “deprive aliens of justice” (Mal 3:5, Deut 27:19). Widespread mistreatment of immigrants can lead to national judgment (Ezek 22:7, 29–31; Jer 22:3–5). Treating immigrants justly was one of the conditions for Israel’s continuing to enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land (Jer 7:6–7).