The Judeo-Christian Redemptive History as an Alternative Framework for the Migration Debate

Abstract

Migration is among the controversial subjects in modern political discourse. Today, all it takes to be politically relevant is to flaunt the dangers that migrants constitute to indigenes. The effect of this is that much of the agenda on contemporary migration debate is set by political and socio-economic calculus. This essay is an attempt to shift the focus of the migration debate to promoting the interest of migrants. Drawing inspiration from the Sacred Scripture of the Judeo-Christian tradition, it highlights the attitude of the Judeo-Christian God to people in search of places of refuge; and how this should affect what the Judeo-Christian religion teaches on how to relate with migrants. The essay reaffirms the values of solidarity and communion in diversity, as well as the need to re-establish the culture of hospitality as the affirmation of the person of the migrant.