Jack Amick: Food and Migration Mission

Today’s post is by Rev. Jack Amick. Rev. Amick is Director of Global Migration at UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief. It is part of a series of reflections by multiple authors on the connections between food and mission.

When I think of the theological significance of food, I think of the words of Isaiah 55, in which God says, through the prophet Isaiah, “All of you who are thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money, come, buy food and eat! Without money, at no cost, buy wine and milk!”  

Ironically, this declaration of God’s abundant provision for all people comes to us at a time when we have learned that a bread line in Ukraine was recently bombed, in a place that used to be known as a breadbasket, not only for the region but, through the World Food Program, as a source of food for places like Afghanistan. In Ukraine, people are starting to starve; In Afghanistan, people have been starving for some time already.  

Conflict, famine, and refugee movements are interrelated. When human beings inflict these scourges on one another, there is no other way to describe it but pure evil.

During my years at UMCOR when I have directed global migration programing, I have observed some of the world’s largest refugee movements since World War II: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and many others. Every time people flee in fear, it breaks my heart.

But I want you to know that every time my heart is broken, it is also healed, by the generosity of the United Methodist Church, who every time the world falls apart, reaches out through UMCOR to do our part in patching things up. UMCOR can’t do it all, but we can make a difference. And, yes, sometimes it feels like building bridges by throwing stones in the ocean, but we, on behalf of, and in partnership with, the United Methodist Church, build those bridges every time.

Many of UMCOR’s programs with migrants involve humanitarian assistance interventions, including the provision of food. Sometimes that is packed meals that people can take with them on the next leg of their journey. Sometimes it is food that reminds them of home. Sometimes it is food they cook themselves.

The basic concepts of providing food for migrants and refugees are simple: Food should look and taste like the food with which people are familiar. There should be enough of it such that the recipient doesn’t have to look again for food in a few days. It should be nutritionally balanced. And, in the best scenario, people should be able to purchase the food and cook it themselves, because both of those actions are generally closer to “normal” than someone giving food or cooking for you. Buying locally also spurs on the local economy. The worst approach to food in mission with migrants and refugees is to import meal packets that are foreign in how they look, taste, and are cooked.

There are several positive examples of food-related best practices from United Methodist migrant and refugee mission work. In some of the church-run shelters along the border, for instance, the guests (asylum seekers) are welcome to gather together in the kitchen and cook so that they can not only have food with the taste and spices with which they are familiar, but they can also feel empowered by cooking for their family.   

Another interesting project was part of UMCOR’s Mustard Seed Migration Grant program. French UMC in Detroit is a church pastored by missionaries from the DRC and consisting of recently arrived French-speaking refugees. The grant UMCOR gave them allowed French UMC to be able to afford to prepare some meals with familiar food for recently arrived refugees that were living in a group housing facility. Welcoming the stranger meant cooking familiar food for them.  

Just recently, we have had some inspiring conversations with United Methodist leaders in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, where the church is opening its doors to people on the move. Through their courage, creativity, and compassion, the church is providing food to Ukrainian refugees, along with shelter, clothing, transportation, and other assistance. One superintendent described this as “work they had never done before, but which they had no choice but to do.” Another described how they were finding ways to take special care of the children. Still another told of how they were working closely to assist African students fleeing Ukraine.

UMCOR has supported each of these entities with emergency grants and is already exploring with local leaders how we can best provide future support. What gives me hope is that the generosity of those on the ground is matched by the generosity of donors, halfway around the world. UMCOR, in partnership with various UMC entities around the globe, is connecting in compassion to eliminate suffering even while our hearts break.

Whether work with migrants and refugees is routine or something “we have never done before but have no choice to do,” sharing food that is culturally appropriate, plentiful, healthy, and when possible, prepared by migrants themselves helps heal the hearts of all involved.

Jack Amick: The Downward Stickiness of Fear

Today's post is by Rev. Jack Amick, Director of Global Migration and Interim Team Lead for International Disaster Response, UMCOR.

Many years ago, before I became a clergy person, I studied economics. One concept I recall is the downward stickiness of prices. Prices are downwardly sticky. Yes, sticky is a term of economics. Prices, in theory, rise and fall in response to supply and demand. And yet, prices do not adjust downward very quickly, for a variety of reasons.

I think the same could be said about fear. When we are afraid of something, we take a lot of convincing that those fears are false or no longer relevant. If we once saw a bear in the woods while camping, it is hard not to maintain a nagging fear of bears every time we camp.

In the face of COVID-19, countries have closed borders to prevent the spread of the virus. One of the first steps the U.S. government took was to close the U.S.-Mexico border to nearly all asylum seekers. In the name of public health, those fearing their lives were left to live in close proximity in makeshift camps without adequate water and sanitation facilities – a sure formula for spreading the disease, but keeping it just on the other side of the border.

Similarly, people in detention were deported to prevent the spread of disease in the U.S. In Greece, people are being “pushed back” to the maritime border with Turkey. Even some asylum seekers who have landed are being carried out and dropped off in lifeboats at that watery boundary.

A fear of foreigners, especially black and brown-skinned foreigners, was mixed with a fear of a new mysterious disease to justify implementation of racist and xenophobic immigration policies that some in the administration of the U.S. and other governments have been seeking for years. These policies and practices are being “hardened.”

For instance, in the middle of the pandemic, the U.S. government is raising filing fees for asylum applications to $50, a price prohibitive for many applicants, and all while officers have been instructed to dramatically reduce approvals for fee waivers. Meanwhile, people who process visa applications in the U.S. are being furloughed, because there are no longer enough visa applications for them to process.

Once in place, these policies and practices that are harmful to immigrants who seek safety in a new country will be virtually unnoticed by the rest of us. And once they are a part of our fabric of fear that insulates us from those we consider “illegal,” coming to America “the legal way” will be nearly impossible for most. We will be reluctant and slow to dismantle the policies created to protect us from our fears, as unrealistic as those fears may be.

One of the concerns that watchers of U.S. migration have right now is that the policies that protect countries from COVID through transmission across national borders will become “sticky.” This is because the COVID excuse is the razor wire crowning the policy that has been building during this administration.

Many nations, including the U.S., have already pre-ordered untested vaccines. As always, the poor in this world will be the last to receive (or will be the least able to afford) the vaccine. We have already seen examples of how shunned refugees, migrants, and displaced persons are relegated to camps where they have little or no access to medical support and no way to earn a living. We have seen those who migrated decades ago to urban centers (such as Mumbai, India) walking back hundreds of miles to their home villages, only to be rejected there.

The economic impact of COVID on migrants is tremendous. First, many immigrants work in sectors of the economy that have experienced significant layoffs. Secondly, many immigrants, depending on their legal status, may not be eligible for certain unemployment or other relief benefits. Consequently, the global level of remittances—people sending money back “home”—is predicted by the UN to drop this year by as much as 20%. (International foreign direct assistance is historically less than remittances globally. For some countries, such as the Philippines or Nepal, remittances are a major portion of GDP.) In many countries, foreign workers are being fired and sent home, without much, if any, compensation.

Proceedings in immigration courts in the U.S. have slowed dramatically. Those filing inside the U.S. for asylum are now being assigned court cases in 2023. These cases are slow in the best of circumstances, but this is as bad as it has been. Refugee resettlement is all but shut down, except for Special Immigrant Visas, such as translators for the US military seeking refuge in the US.

Migrants are bearing the negative burden of COVID and are tied intrinsically to how we address (or do not address) other global issues collectively. Conflict transformation and reconciliation, disaster response and mitigation, and climate change are all issues that have profound impact on migratory flows. And yet, the nations who, collectively, were seemingly so eager to collaborate for the greater good in the mid-20th century have either shunned recent compacts and talks or have failed to comply with previous understandings, or both.

In recent years, there has been a major erosion of international understandings of how nations are supposed to behave and the shared responsibilities we have for the most vulnerable. It is sad that some of the things the U.S. pushed so hard for with the international community in the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, the Refugee Convention, are no longer adhered to (at least vis-a-vis asylum seekers), even by the U.S.

Given that context, when a need to protect citizens from a disease comes along and borders can be closed to asylum seekers and refugees fleeing harm’s way and seeking a new life, we seem eager to close the doors of hope and safety.

As Methodists, we need to do no harm and continue to work for global cooperation on peacemaking, climate change mitigation, and migration in a way that ensures that the methods we use to combat COVID do no harm and do not unfairly shift the burden of this disease to the poor. As Christians, if we close borders, we also need to advocate for finding ways to open them as soon as possible, so that we can get back to our calling of welcoming the stranger.

We need to make sure that Christianity doesn’t inadvertently undergird the “us first” mentality that goes hand in hand with nationalist, xenophobic, and racist agendas and policies that end up excluding. We need to offer constant reminders to these forces that we are so much better off with the diversity of migrants in our nation, our communities, and our churches. 50% of those employed in the agricultural sector in the U.S. are immigrants. Immigrants account for 20% of all U.S. health care workers. Immigrants are an important part of our communities in many ways. Immigrants make the U.S., and the world, function well.

The church has an important role to play to call everyone back to the table so we can move forward in positive ways in these arenas and not get stuck in our fear. Simultaneously, the church is called to welcome the stranger. It is time for the church to boldly proclaim that message that appears 82 times in the Bible: “Fear Not!” If the church can show people, through small actions, that it is not only safe, but beneficial, and consistent with our faith, to truly welcome into our lives people who speak differently, look differently, and maybe even think differently, we may be able to reverse the sticky downward descent into fear.