Does everyone who lives here have to belong here?

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19.33, 34

The current debate over immigration tends to get hung up on the question of citizenship. Public policy – or at least the public mindset – assumes that those who come from foreign countries to live and work in America will, sooner or later, become citizens of the Republic. Provisions exist for short-term stays and longer-term work-related arrangements. But if you plan to stay here for long, the assumption is you’re going to become a citizen. Quotas exist defining how many people of any particular ethnic origin may apply for citizenship in a given year, thus limiting the numbers of people who can come to America for the long-term.

Becoming a citizen entails certain privileges and responsibilities not available to everyone, primary among these being the right to participate in the political process – to vote or hold office. Foreigners don’t need to be citizens to work or own property here. And it’s easy enough to visit America as a foreigner, or to study at one of our universities. So the assumption is that those who wish to stay here for the long-haul also wish to participate in the polity of the land; thus, they need to become citizens as soon as possible.

But is this really a necessity? Everyone who is here – well, diplomats excluded (why?) – is subject to the laws of the land (more on this in our next installment). So becoming a citizen does not obligate one to keep the laws, pay taxes, or behave. Merely being here obligates one to such responsibilities.

Biblical Law did not require strangers (foreign visitors) to become citizens. Owning property would have been difficult, given the way property was managed under the ancient Israelite economy. But a foreign visitor would most likely have been able to find some place to rent or perhaps even to purchase, until, that is, the Sabbath year. Citizenship in Israel was closely linked to the worship of God, and foreigners were not allowed to participate in the ancient Hebrew religious practices. But this had no bearing on whether or not they could live and work for an extended period among the Hebrew people.

I don’t know whether removing the citizenship expectation – and quotas – from the table would have any effect on the kind of public policies lawmakers might enact in order to reform immigration practices. But it would be worth floating as a suggestion: Should American immigration policies allow for long-term, even indefinite, stays on the part of foreigners, without any expectation that citizenship is the end game?

One fear, I suppose, is that foreigners would flood these shores, expecting to be taken care of by the government. But if we recall that, in the Biblical economy, even the poor were expected to work and contribute to the community, that fear might not be well-founded. At least, not where public policy is determined by concerns of Biblical justice.

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