The European project that has been a gift to create peace among nations is under great threat. That project, with such Christian people as Robert Schuman (1886-1963) at the foundation, has been criticised as it developed into the EU. Certainly far from perfect, but if any demise will lead to a pulling back into self-protective borders, we might be regretting the jettisoning of the imperfect. I do not simply refer to the Brexit, but to the responses and tensions within the EU over how the humanitarian crisis is faced. And of course this is not just a European issue but one that is affecting the USA very acutely also.
I live as a privileged immigrant. We have food, we have legal, if not full status. Yet we have come not too different to many other immigrants who are arriving for external reasons. They are forced to come and many wish to make a contribution to the land. We are not here for external reasons, but by inner conviction and seek to make a contribution to the land. We pay our taxes here, and as a result pay significantly more than if we remained registered in the UK. Many come here as privileged immigrants, do not pay taxes and call themselves ex-pats. Those who act in that way are not under any great threat of expulsion from Spain or another similar country. They are, after all, only doing at a personal level what major institutions do at the global level. Finances and power give them the right to live / exploit where they want and when. We do not want that right, and many cast adrift on the Mediterranean of course do not come with finances or power… but if given the opportunity would make a home in the European lands and seek to make a contribution.
The EU is more likely to collapse as a result of the shutting up of borders to the outsider than it is simply post-Brexit. A number of years ago, long before the Brexit we were sent an open vision someone had while praying. She saw that a hand came and took the UK out of a European map. Then colour and light drained out of Europe. This was long before the Brexit and at a time when there was no-one predicting that the referendum would go the ‘leave’ route. We held it as the track record of the person is exceptionally high and noted that she said the Brexit referendum would be about the future of Europe. A number of us have travelled to the place where the colour and light disappeared in the hope that we could sow into the future. There was a second part of the vision also.
While in Prague we were told that most of the Eastern European countries are looking to tighten their borders. We were told this by believers who did not seem to see this as an issue. However, it is not just Eastern Europeans. There are very real issues that Italy and Greece face as most immigrants arrive in those lands and it is easy to criticise their actions of turning away mercy ships. If they turn away ships and other European nations turn away we have a problem.
We are grateful that Spain (Valencia) welcomed the Aquarius (and two other ships) with 600+ rescued from the Mediterranean. Grateful that into a port that brutally shipped Spanish born Muslims in the 1600s it now welcomed some 400 years later others in return. This we have prayed for, ending in Gibraltar last year, and curiously the ship arrived under a Gibraltar flag!
There are very real issues being faced in the so-called developed West over immigration. However, we have contributed to the problem over decades. The supply of arms to these nations where the conflicts exist have meant countless thousands have been made homeless and lives put at risk is down to us. The wealth we have accumulated at the Southern hemisphere’s expense has likewise driven people this way. (And when in Prague, an ex-communist city, it was easy to see that there is no difference between capitalism in its dominant neo-liberal expression or communism. Both are servants of the evil of bio-power. Human resources are their fodder.)
We are not politicians, and they certainly need prayer for wisdom as to how to move forward as so much is at stake. We are not politicians but the Gospel does not allow us to think of the message of Jesus as non-political. We, as the body of Christ, and therefore some individuals within that body will have to step up, have to somehow hold open the space for the future. And in holding the space begin to speak some content into that. God created through holding space (to counter the ‘without form’) and then filled that space (to counter the ‘and empty’). We likewise have to hold space and this is vital at a time when there is the desire to collapse borders. The shape of the EU is not the issue but living as family across Europe is. The Pauline Gospel seems to drive us that way. Living in the one-world government era his one passion was to get to the extent of the borders. The Jews in Exile had a great opportunity to live out life in the imperial world of Babylon – but they hankered for the land and created the synagogue!
Can we hold the space? The lands are changing, and need to change. We have utterly failed in our stewardship of the lands, failing to be a resource to the rest of the world. We can only anticipate that there will be wholesale shifts of population. Can we hold the space for the new? This is not a time to allow small borders to shape the future. And in holding it can we begin to prophesy what will fill that space?
I hope, as a Brit, that the Brexit did not sow something into Europe of closing borders that is now being replicated in other nations. Maybe the Brexit had little to do with political shape and more to do with how open we will be to the other. If so something must begin in the body of Christ as we are called to be the salt of the earth. We will have to step up to hold back the pollution that rises so easily.
We can do so little. Gayle and I can live here as immigrants, love the land, refuse to live with a border mentality. We can begin there in response, but we know that will not in itself be enough. There will be more we will have to do, but we must start with what is in our hands.
Thanks Martin. I’m rather concerned where Germany is going at this point in time. A major battle within the major centre right party is happening just now. Pushing in the direction of Visegrad and Italian politics, changing of police laws etc. Rather worrying developments. For me still time to fight to save and to change and not yet to go into hiding. “The seed that dies and falls into the ground and dies brings about a future harvest.”
Yes but Merkel really set out a path for others to follow. Maybe she opened something up that cannot be fully shut down. The wider European community has to pick the pace and respond. I think the next months will be critical.
By immigrants, are we talking about refugees only? ( and how do we define those). Or are we including so-called economic migrants? ( and how do we define those). Does a borderless or small border mentality mean anyone can come and go anywhere? Or am I missing the point?
Geoff (glad you could comment!!) The whole thing is complicated of course, but the shocking closing of borders to those who are on the Med, the majority of whom have no option… The rescue boat ‘Open Arms’ were taken to court for human trafficking when they were rescuing those from the dinghies; yesterday they were not informed by either the Italian nor the Libyan authorities that there was a boatload nearby… then found out later that the whole boatload had drowned. So of course the Med is a specific issue, and cannot be simply a Italian / Maltese / Spanish issue.
Also the numbers in Germany who have come to faith is incredible – new churches sprung up from those who were immigrants.
There is currently a huge people movement – so much caused by economic policies of the West. Somewhere we have to find a way of allowing those who need a home to find one.
Then living in Spain – as immigrants – we are so aware of those who have come to use the land, live on it, not marry it. A number of those are anti-Europe (and not just in the sense of Brexit) but want the colonial right to use it when they wish.
Brexit I appreciate could be voted for reasons other than ‘I am shutting my borders to Europe’ but I think there was an element of that in the vote.
Opening borders with no restriction is one thing, but Spain recently took in the 630 immigrants off the ship Aquarius. Can they welcome everyone? No… but they can do another 630, and another 630 and probably many many more.
Have we lost Europe today? How are we to carry on fighting from here? I blame Evangelicals for the darkness that we are now entering. Grieving.
I find the thinking on immigration is often very contradictory. Most of the people who also defend closed or partially closed borders would also defend capitalism. Capitalism in it’s purest form constantly seeks the cheapest labour. Cheap labour is labour that is mobile, that is, people move around to find the best jobs or any job. Restricting the flow of labour, especially cheap labour, is against capitalism. I am not arguing for capitalism merely noting the contradictions.
Presumably if we had completely open borders, as the EU offered to European citizens, people would move and shift about depending upon individual needs and concerns and where they thought the best opportunities lay. Is there anything different about Africans doing that?
Perhaps we are blown away by the risks these folks are willing to take in order to make a better life for themselves and their children. I assume for us in the New World, we have forgotten the risks taken by our own ancestors if we are not indigenous. My ancestors came to New York City by boat. That was not a safe thing to do. They were poor. They had to build new lives. They had to integrate and learn a new language. Life was hard until another generation had come to be. But they did it. And I hope they became part of building a better place. Did they do it well or perfectly? No, but then they were simply humans willing to take a risk for something better.
It is interesting that these conversations in Europe and the USA are taking place in a time when numbers of immigrants has actually dropped significantly. That tells me that the argument around immigration is most likely an argument about other things. What is it we actually believe needs protecting and defending? Why do we believe that? Is it true?
All the stats show that immigrants create jobs and build the economy so this is not about defending our economies. It is about something deeper and perhaps much darker.