Lux Lucet

The debate over US immigration policy has become heated in recent years and shows no sign of going away.  Part of the reason for this is the failure of those engaged in the debate, whatever their position on immigration, to understand and believe what the Bible has to say about the subject.  It may come as a surprise to some to hear that the Bible has anything to say about immigration.  Others may concede that the Scriptures do address the subject, but dismiss their teaching as irrelevant to the present debate.  But the Bible claims to have a monopoly on truth, not just religious or moral truth, but all truth, political truth included.  Let us briefly consider some of its teachings on the subject.

 The debate about immigration is fundamentally a debate about citizenship, to whom does is rightfully belong?  In Scripture there are only two ways in which a man gains citizenship:  birth, and immigration.  This point is illustrated by Paul’s conversation with the Roman commander shortly after his arrest in Jerusalem,

Then the commander came and said to him (Paul), “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.”

The commander answered, “With a large sum I obtained this citizenship.” And Paul said, “But I was born [a citizen].” (Acts 22:27, 28)

The task, then, for the Christian scholar is to determine how the Bible applies applies the law in both cases. 

The concept of citizenship by birth may seem so obvious as to need no comment.  But there are two different types of birthright citizenship: jus sanguinis (right of blood) and jus soli (right of soil).  In the former case if one’s parents are citizens of a country, their citizenship is passed on to their children because of the blood relationship that exists between parents and children.  On the other hand, Jus soli is the idea that citizenship is conveyed by place of birth.  If a child is born within the territory of a country, the child is considered a citizen on that country regardless of the citizenship status of his parents.  Our question then becomes, does the Bible approve of jus sanguinis or jus soli, or reject both in favor of some other alternative?  While these are interesting questions, ones which I propose to answer, for now I pass them over and will turn in my next essay to the question of what the Bible has to say about immigration.