The People Are
Coming: Migrants
and the Gospel
gram, there are now 214 million international migrants
– people living outside their country of birth.
Part five in a Faith Today series looking
ahead to the Lausanne Congress on
World evangelization this October in
Cape Town, South africa.
as I wait to fly out to Oxford, England from To- ronto’s Pearson International Airport this after- noon, I am assured that we will take off just as
the world’s largest passenger aircraft approaches the
runway to land. It’s an Airbus A380 coming from Dubai
(Emirates Flight 241) carrying up to 853 passengers. I
may be leaving, but more people are coming!
That’s entirely appropriate, since I am going to at-
tend the launch of an initiative at the Oxford Centre
for Mission Studies, focused
on people on the move – spe-
cifically, international mass
migration or “diasporas.”
kids in a playground or jogging around a local park. They
may even be living next door to you.
More on Diaspora:
•;Lausanne;Diasporas;website:
http://gatheredscattered.com/
press
•;Film;(at;public;libraries):;Walk
a Mile by the national Film
Board of Canada
•;Book:;Calculated Kindness:
Global Restructuring, Im-
migration and Settlement in
Canada. Rose Baaba Folson,
ed. (Fernwood, 2009).
Canada’s Face in the 21st Century
Though Canadian history recalls a mass migration of
European immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries, it
was not until the 20th and 21st centuries that Canada
widely opened its doors to diasporas from Asia, Africa
and Latin America.
Migration trends for Canada indicate a continued ac-
celeration of immigration. Case in point, by December
2008 Citizenship and Immigration Canada estimated
that our country had
• brought in a total of 302,303 foreign workers as tem-
porary migrant workers;
• granted initial entry to 233,971 foreign students;
• welcomed 27,956 refugees; and
• granted 236,758 people permission to make Canada
their home as permanent immigrants. For these, the
top source countries were China, India, Philippines,
United States, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Iran
and South Korea.
Evidently, a multitude of people representing all colours, languages, states and cultures are coming to Canada. Canada’s multi-ethnic and multicultural society can
boggle the imagination. Immigrants are literally changing
our idea of what a Canadian looks like. According to
Statistics Canada, within three decades about a third of
Canada’s population – that would be 14. 4 million people
– will be a visible minority (a non-European).
Furthermore, StatCan predicts that by 2017 about half
of the population of Toronto and Vancouver will be visible minorities. Imagine in 10 years what a “Canadian”
and a Canadian city will look like.
People on the Move
This unprecedented movement of people has clearly
set a global trend for the 21st century. Caused by multiple factors both voluntary and involuntary, diaspora
is a complex issue that is changing world demography,
economies, cultures and societies. (Voluntary factors can
include education, employment, financial advancement
and family reunification. Involuntary factors include natural disasters, war and human trafficking.)
According to the United Nations Development Pro-
The Global Missions Agenda
Economist Kenichi Ohmae coined the term “
borderless world” in 1990 to describe how institutions that
operate globally are no longer fixed to a specific place.
For Christians interested in sharing their faith, the term
“borderless world” also illustrates the fluidity of migration at a time when advanced technology is facilitating travel and communication at mind-boggling speed.
Christian scholars and church planters are monitoring
and analyzing the international migration patterns and
their implications for the Church’s mission.
A growing number are realizing the importance of
migration. As the late Ralph Winter wrote in 2003 (in
