The Global Migration Crisis: Praying for those fleeing violence

Dear friends,

I spent several weeks this summer up in my home state of Wisconsin. Given its status as a “purple” state in a contentious presidential election season, each evening, when I turned on the TV to watch the Olympics, I’d see dozens of political ads. A very large share of those ads focused in one way or another on immigration, usually with an emphasis on the U.S.-Mexico border and its alleged association with all sorts of public safety crises.

If television ads were your only point of reference, one might conclude that public safety concerns related to immigration are the most pressing issue facing Wisconsin residents… but that felt rather disconnected from my own experience of Wisconsin. The state is very far from the U.S.-Mexico border, of course, and while there are immigrants who make their home in Wisconsin, they only make up about 5 percent of the state’s population, compared to 15 percent of the national population who are foreign-born. Of all the everyday stresses personally impacting typical Wisconsinites, security concerns related to immigration and the border seemed pretty far from the minds of most people with whom I interacted.

For many of our neighbors around the world, however – including many who are brothers and sisters in Christ – the threat of violence is not just a campaign issue: it comes too close to ignore, forcing many to flee their homes and sometimes their countries in search of safety.

This month marks three years since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans to safety. Many others were left behind and still live at risk of persecution or even death in Afghanistan, whether because of their association with the U.S. military, their status as a religious minority or for being a woman who has pursued education.

The war in Ukraine has led roughly 10 million Ukrainians to flee their homes since Russia’s invasion in 2022, most of them seeking refuge abroad. Sudan, now in the second year of a civil war, is described by some as the world’s largest displacement crisis, with millions displaced both within the country and beyond its borders. In Venezuela, which more than 7 million people have fled in recent years, the ruling regime has responded violently to dissenters after announcing election results that the U.S. and many other countries have said were a sham.

In these and so many other countries around our world, the threat of violence is very real. For the first time in recorded history, there are now 120 million people around our world who have been forcibly displaced, a number roughly double what it was just a decade ago. While we tend to focus on those who seek to come to the United States, most of these individuals are displaced within their countries of origin, and of those displaced abroad, three-quarters are in low- and medium-income countries, not the United States or other high-income countries.

That’s not to dismiss the many legitimate public safety questions related to immigration in the United States. In fact, for those trying to sort fact from fiction and to process the political rhetoric from a distinctly Christian perspective, I’d encourage you to register for this free webinar on September 6. Former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Elizabeth Neumann, pastor Ismael Flores, who ministers at a church along the border in Texas, and Christianity Today editor in chief Russell Moore will be on to share their expert perspectives.

But as we think about safety and migration, let’s not forget to pray for the millions forced to migrate because their safety was at risk. I’d ask you to join me in praying for the following:

• Peace in countries plagued by war, conflict and persecution
• God’s protection of those in harm’s way and those seeking to offer humanitarian assistance
• The response of the church in each of these countries and in the neighboring countries to which the majority of refugees have fled
• Our government in the United States – and all those seeking elected leadership – that they would respond to this global displacement crisis with wisdom and compassion
• That in the midst of incredible threats, individuals would encounter the hope and ultimate security found only in Jesus

In Christ,
Matthew Soerens
National Coordinator, Evangelical Immigration Table