Secular universalism, the UK’s dominant cultural force, demands a steady flow of immigrants for economic and cultural reasons; it provides workers to fill unattractive jobs and panders to multiculturalism. The question of immigration however, is a complex moral issue and complex moral issues inevitably cause divisions, even amongst Christians.

Simplistic slogans

It Is almost axiomatic that churches in the West are pro-immigration. In order to welcome all immigrants, the Revd Dr Giles Fraser cries ‘Let’s dig up the greenbelt, create new cities’. ‘Refugees welcome’ is the stance not just of secular humanists, it echoes around our churches. In a recent letter all the Church of England bishops sitting in the House of Lords roundly denounced the government’s policy of resettling illegal immigrants in Rwanda. The plan was described as an ‘immoral policy’ that ‘shames Britain’. Yet the problems we face concerning immigration are not amenable to simplistic sloganeering, no matter how virtuous seeming.

Complex questions

The mainstream churches attitude to immigration raises real policy questions. Of the tens of millions displaced by conflict, how many should the UK welcome? If we were to take all who make it to the UK, how does a country £2 trillion in debt and running an annual deficit of £128 billion pay for them? The cost of housing refugees in UK hotels is around £4.7million per day or £1.715 billion per year alone. If the number is to be capped, how do we restrict the flow? How do we, or should we, distinguish between genuine refugees and economic migrants? If illegal immigrants are to be removed, how and where? Should foreign criminals be deported where possible? The practical questions are many; the bishops, however, provide no answers for inconvenient questions.

71% of British people in YouGov’s latest poll indicate they believe the government is handling immigration badly.

It is clear that British people are concerned about what is happening in our communities. 71% of British people in YouGov’s latest poll indicate they believe the government is handling immigration badly, and around half of Britons (50%) say migrant numbers over the last 10 years have been too high. The British public tend to adopt an unfavourable view of illegal Channel crossings. These numbered at 28,526 in 2021, up from 8,404 in 2020. By a margin of 56% to 19%, Britons take a negative view of those arriving in this way.

Immigration consequences

Our progressive elites fail to recognise that open immigration is a form of neo-colonialism; we denude the developing world of its most able (including medical staff), thus weakening those countries for our benefit. Mass immigration widens social inequality at home by importing cheap labour for temporary economic advantage. A strain is placed upon housing provision and educational and health services, which most affects the wellbeing and life chances of the poorest. Whilst the well-to-do get cheap nannies and cleaners, wages for the lowest paid workers are undercut by the exploitation of desperately poor immigrants, and the black economy booms.

It is argued that immigration strengthens British churches. As long ago as 2014 it was acknowledged that church membership was being propped up by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa. Unfortunately, just as immigration generally is an economic Ponzi scheme with the children of immigrants rejecting the demeaning and hard work their parents accepted, necessitating a further influx of immigrants, so the children of Christian immigrants tend to turn from our churches, necessitating a further influx of immigrants to keep up numbers. Immigration is not the cure for dying mainstream denominations and reliance upon it shelters them from the necessity of evangelism.

Refugees and migrants

Human relationships in Scripture are much more complex than secular universalism or liberal Christianity would have us believe. Genuine human equality is born in Genesis 1 with the creation of every human being in the image of God; we have a shared human brotherhood. However, it does not follow of necessity that we have equal relationships and obligations to everyone on the planet. Jesus had varieties of relationships; there was ‘the disciple whom he loved’, then the three on the Mount of Transfiguration, then the twelve, the seventy two, all the way to those over whom he wept because they would not respond to him (Luke 19:41-44).

Basic Christian teaching is based on a distinction, that between believers and unbelievers.

Basic Christian teaching is based on a distinction, that between believers and unbelievers. Even in our generosity we are instructed to give preference to the household of faith over unbelievers (Gal 6:10). We are taught that not to provide for one’s relatives, ‘especially for his own household’, is to deny the faith (I Tim 5:8).

We are encouraged to welcome the stranger, especially the needy. The parable of the Samaritan instructs us to help our neighbour, the person in need. This does not necessitate blanket acceptance of all immigrants. We should make a distinction between refugees fleeing war and persecution, and migrants searching for better economic opportunities. The plight of refugees and asylum seekers is a humanitarian catastrophe to which we must respond. The situation of many economic migrants is by no means as desperate.

In Scripture there are many examples of ‘immigrants’ who were welcomed fully into Israel. Caleb, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah all integrated and became leading members of the community, identifying with and adopting the beliefs and customs of Israel. But this welcome is not unilateral. The Bible is equally clear that those who refused to integrate were a continuing threat to the existence of Israel. Immigration is a complex issue, so we must be, ‘As wise as serpents and as innocent as doves’ (Matt 10:10).

What should be done?

• Take serious measures to stop cross-Channel illegal immigration, which endangers the lives of illegal immigrants and profits criminals.
• Enact comprehensive reform of the immigration system to enable a more controlled immigration flow.
• Enforce tighter regulations on employers regarding illegal immigrants.
• Deport, where possible, all known criminals who are here illegally.
• Require immediate temporary registration for immigrants in order to receive services from public bodies.
• Create a path to full citizenship which demands genuine integration.