According to a 2016 Forbes
article precisely 42 slots on The Forbes 400 belong to naturalized citizens who
immigrated to America. That's 10.5% of the list, a huge over performance
considering that naturalized citizens make up only 6% of the U.S. population. For all the political bombast about
immigrants being an economic drain or a security threat, the pace of economic hyper
success among immigrants is increasing. The
combined net worth of those 42 immigrant fortunes is $248 billion. According to the Kauffman Foundation,
immigrants are nearly twice as likely to start a new business as native-born
Americans. The Partnership for a New
American Economy, a nonpartisan group formed by Forbes 400 members Murdoch and
Michael Bloomberg, reports that immigrants started 28% of all new businesses in
the U.S. in 2011, employed one out of every ten American workers at privately
owned businesses and generated $775 billion in revenue. Some of these businesses are small, of course,
like restaurants and auto repair shops.
Yet statistics do not tell the
story of immigration. People do. Since its inception, this nation has been
continually infused with the energy of newcomers. The very act of immigrating is
entrepreneurial, a self-selected risk taken in an effort to better one's
circumstances. It's a mind-set. “You leave everything you have and get on a
plane,” says Forbes 400 member Shahid Khan. “You can handle change. You can
handle risk. And you want to prove yourself.”
Yet their assimilation has seldom been smooth. The challenges immigrants face today are not
new, only the stories are.
By and large immigrants often
fall into two baskets. Some have enough privilege to live anywhere, but see
America as the place of greater opportunity.
Many come to escape injustices against humanity: ethnic genocide,
religious persecution, war, famine, crime, and political unrest, or they are
drawn by the lure of better employment opportunities, sometimes with
devastating effects. Yet the goal is often
the same, hope of a better life, for themselves and their families and they are
willing to sacrifice an awful lot up to obtain their dream.
Now I’m not going to pretend
that there are any easy answers to the long standing debate on immigration. This issue has existed throughout all of human
history. What I do know is, no matter
how high you build a wall, hope will scale it, burrow under it, or find some
other way around it. I know, no matter
how many times we develop laws that restrict or deport a person who has tasted
the fruits of hope, they will find a way back.
So what do we do about it? I
believe the starting point for any human reform begins with each one of us as
individuals and we have scripture as our starting point.
We tend to think of the escape
from Egypt and the wandering in the wilderness as the content of the book of
Exodus, yet the larger theme concerns the forming of a people into the people
of God. Included are an explanation
about the proper way to worship and revere God, civil and criminal laws, and
other exhortations about how to live in right covenant relationship. Fundamental to the behaviors expected of the
people of Israel is the idea that ‘as God acts toward them they are to act
toward one another.’ Today’s reading
singles out the treatment of the alien, the widow and the orphan, who represent
the most vulnerable people & groups in society.
In our gospel reading Jesus is,
once again, tested by the scholars with the question, “Teacher, which commandment
is the greatest?" You know the answer,
love God with everything you have and are, AND your neighbor as yourself. How do we love an unseen God? We need to love our neighbor. How do we love our sometimes inconvenient
neighbor, by loving ourselves with a healthy self-love, and so we have to ask
ourselves, who is my neighbor?
The book of Exodus answers this
question, ALL people are our neighbors, including those most in need, the
immigrant to our country, the elderly who have lost their voice and status in the
community, and the orphan, especially those who find themselves aging out of
foster care with nowhere to turn. We are
to treat all people with dignity and respect, as God has treated us, rescued us
from our modern day slavery, and forgiven us.
In other words, imitate God by doing unto others what God has done for
you. Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation,
the Joy of the Gospel states: “Being Church means being God’s people, in
accordance with the great plan of his fatherly love. This means that we are to be God’s leaven in
the midst of humanity. It means
proclaiming and bringing God’s salvation into our world, which often goes
astray and needs to be encouraged, given hope and strengthened on the way. The Church must be a place of mercy freely
given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live
the good life of the Gospel.” (EG 114)
Do you want real reform? The only way is to embrace God’s plan. We know it works. St. Paul in his praise for the Thessalonians
lived faith is one such example. It’s a faith
that has gone forth, transmitted from one person to another, from Thessalonica
to other cities and nations. Transmitted
by being a living example to others, maintaining joy and hope even in the midst
of suffering. I’ve heard this said so
many times, “I succeeded by my hard work, by the investment of my own blood,
sweat and tears. Everyone else should do
the same so that they will respect and cherish what they have, just like
me.” Remember the two baskets that
immigrants generally fall into? I usually
hear this from the folks who now fall into the basket of the some who have
enough privilege to choose, from those who have either forgotten their gifted
breaks in life or those who now expect more sacrifice from others than
themselves, because they’ve already paid their dues.
St. Francis de Sales gives us
some practical advice on how we can begin to reform our world. He says, Put others in your place and
yourself in theirs, and then treat the other the way you would like to be
treated. That’s how we love God,
neighbor, and self.
