Beyond Soundbites

In late 2019 and early 2020, the Trump administration’s actions were pushing migrant people in the US/Mexico borderlands into dangerous environments, while at the same time undercutting programs in the Northern Triangle that effectively address root causes of migration. This episode takes us to a “sending community” in Honduras and a “receiving community” in Mexico to hear from people fighting for the good of their neighbors in the volatile landscapes shaped by these policies. Their insights move us to ask, “What types of policies could we expect to see through and after Covid if the Trump administration continues four more years?”

Covid-19 has all but reset our public memory. For many Americans, asylum-related topics like Remain in Mexico, zero tolerance, family separations, and safe third-country agreements have faded from our thoughts. The next two episodes provide an opportunity to revisit and remember some of those policies by hearing from people who were experiencing their outworking on the ground pre-pandemic. Their insights speak to the mentality of an administration that has continued aggressively reducing immigration across the board during the pandemic, especially for forcibly displaced people. We start by hearing from two people in Honduras. Señora Malvia runs a shoe store in Tegucigalpa and spends her time and energy caring for the families of migrant people. Alexander is a coffee farmer who made the journey north in hopes of being able to provide for his wife and kids.

Before diving into two episodes focused on Central America and asylum issues, Jacob pauses briefly to review his connection to refugee issues. He invites new listeners into his journey of learning to look for the image of God in various groups of immigrants—asylum seekers, refugees, and economic migrants.

This episode is part two of two in a sequence where we consider the significance of the Refugee Act of 1980 (signed in to law 40 years ago) through the eyes of one of its beneficiaries, 26-year-old Trang Tran. In the last episode we learned the basic shape of her grandfather’s story and reviewed the history, conflict, and global migration trends that allowed him and his family to resettle to a Chicago suburb in the early 1990s. Now we’ll back up the timeline and zoom in to understand how Trang’s family navigated the challenges and opportunities presented by resettlement.

Trang Tran and her family were resettled under the auspices of the Refugee Act of 1980 by an organization called World Relief. Hailing from Vietnam, the family landed in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton when Trang, now 26, was just shy of a year old. In the next two episodes, she talks about the forces—international and interpersonal—that have shaped her sense of identity and home. In episode 17, we start with memories of her Grandpa, then zoom out to consider the socio-political context of her family’s journey.

This is the second half of our conversation with Bethany, a relief worker and missionary who supports migrant people and asylum-seekers in southern Spain. Last episode gave us the regional context and some of the issues displaced people typically face in Spain. Now we hear about how families at the center she and her team run fared in the weeks between March 14 and May 11. 

In part three of our displaced during COVID-19 series, we learn background on the Mediterranean migration routes and meet an American relief worker and missionary named Bethany, who lives in southern Spain. Bethany shares about some of the challenges asylum-seekers and migrant people typically face there. This sets the stage for better understanding the challenges introduced since the pandemic began, which Bethany discusses in the next episode. 

SJ Holsteen from IAFR Jonathan House in St. Paul Minnesota is a residential worker who lives with four women currently seeking asylum. She shares about the importance of safe and stable housing for asylum seekers during COVID-19. For additional information about how COVID-19 is affecting immigration hearings and asylum-seekers in the U.S., here are some links and recent articles: Executive Office for Immigration Review Website 10,000 Migrants Expelled at Border During CoronavirusNational Immigration Forum Legislative Bulletin - April 10

It's difficult to maintain a spirit of concern for displaced people when our own communities and families are riddled with uncertainty and pain. Yet our own frailty can become a point of empathy for those who have long persevered through isolation, instability, and loss. And empathy can become a springboard for sacrificial action.  In the next several episodes, we'll take a detour from planned production to visit people who are doing front-line work with refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers in North America and beyond. I hope their voices, stories, and prayers will call us to generously support displaced people during COVID-19. In this episode, we visit a migrant shelter in Juárez, Mexico and speak with leaders from Abara Frontiers. 

As we prepare in coming months to address asylum issues in Central America and the U.S. Southern border, we pause for a bonus Q and A with author Karen Gonzalez. Her family migrated to the U.S. from Guatemala in the 1980’s. Karen talks about her book, The God Who Sees. She answers more questions about the role of stories in raising awareness, the variety of voices needed for effective advocacy, the nuance of language, and more.

Through the story of her second baptism in South Los Angeles, author and immigrant advocate Karen Gonzalez challenges listeners about how our vision of refugees and immigrants compares to God’s perspective. This episode includes a reading from her book, The God Who Sees, along with an author Q&A about ministering to and with immigrant communities in mutuality.

Daniel Yang is a church planter and a Hmong-American born shortly after his parents arrived as refugees in 1979. We close this sequence with a message he delivered at the 2018 RHPNA Roundtable. Daniel weaves together three narratives: his own family's displacement, the history of refugee resettlement in the U.S., and the exile-restoration motif expressed in Isaiah chapter 43.

We move from conflict regions and countries of asylum to the country that has traditionally accepted the largest number of refugees for formal resettlement: The United States. What are the domestic ramifications of the travel ban as a policy and a symbol? How are people involved in direct ministry to refugees and asylum-seekers responding?

Fourteen months after Jacob's trip to Turkey, we get back in touch with Peter, Hannah, Romin, Oge, and Dariush. In the process, we get a glimpse of how two years of reduced U.S. refugee resettlement feels from the international side. Featuring music from Shayan Ariyan. 

The next four episodes explore what has transpired in the landscape of displacement since President Trump announced a "travel ban" two years ago this week. To set the stage and get perspective, we start with the story of an Iraqi woman displaced to Turkey in the 1990's.

Back in Chicago in the Spring of 2018, Jacob discusses the outworkings of the United State’s drastically reduced resettlement program and what it means in the broader context of displacement. We also get an update from a storyteller in a previous episode.

Mohammad’s home city of Aleppo was the center of Syria’s civil war for years. The violence left his family spread across Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon. In Lebanon, Mohammad had encounters that changed his sense of identity and purpose.

Romin and Oge became refugees just a few weeks after they got married. They tell stories about finding love in God and in each other, exploring spiritual borders between faiths, and crossing physical borders between nations.

From Nikes to Michael Jackson, Dariush has been looking West since childhood. His laugh is contagious; his family’s long search for belonging is full of grit, ingenuity and the skill to adapt and survive in a world that offers few solutions to displaced people.

Peter’s mother moved their family to Tehran when he was in grade school. It was the start of a journey that hasn’t ended yet. Through his story, listeners are invited into the inner-world of displacement - a world of waiting that requires deep faith.

In our introductory episode, Jacob sets a background for refugee resettlement in the U.S. by describing the environment at a Chicago resettlement agency in the fall of 2016.