Welcoming the Stranger: A Call to Open Our Hearts to Migrants
By Khadija Mohamud
This evening, the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life will host an event, entitled, "Refugees and Immigrants: Welcoming the Stranger in Tough Times." The following piece from Khadija Mohamud is a continuation of stories and projects affirming the statement from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity."
As the eldest child of two Somali immigrants, I was raised indebted to the refuge my parents found in America. Displacement and conflict have been the two underlying themes that have scattered my family members across five continents. I came to understand migration from a young age as involuntary—a means to escape a gruesome reality that presented the daunting challenge of starting anew. Who in their wildest dreams could imagine leaving behind the only home they ever knew and separating from the company of their loved ones? My parents continue to ask this question as they struggle to comprehend the rhetoric villainizing immigrants, refugees, political asylum-seekers, and undocumented persons in America.
Today I unfortunately continue to witness the challenges my parents and relatives face in being “immigrants” in a country where they are misunderstood, disrespected, undermined, and publicly dehumanized for being seen as “other.” My mother and father, like their fellow Americans, are seeking to provide their children and loved ones with a better life. But for some reason this universal ambition is questioned and discredited depending on the circumstances in which you reach the location of where you believe this is possible.
The frustration many immigrants and refugees feel in being misunderstood and marginalized by the call for “assimilation” reminds me of a Somali proverb that says “get to know me before you reject me.” My parents raised my siblings and me to challenge ourselves in removing the ill thoughts, ideas, and assumptions that prevent us from opening our hearts to others. This proverb encapsulates what I believe my faith teaches me as a Muslim and what my Somali heritage beautifully reminds me on a daily basis. I grew up seeing “others” to mean any human being, any living testament of God’s unique attribute as our creator. This meant challenging myself to meet others who appeared different from me and to be the first to offer a helping hand during any given situation. Welcoming the stranger is what my parents have raised my siblings and me to value and consistently engage with as proud first generation Somali-American Muslims. Just as the residents of Medina welcomed and greeted Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca with open arms, my parents expected nothing less from us.
I am profoundly and deeply moved by the courage, resilience, and determination of my parents, aunts, and uncles towards making the most of their circumstances to not only provide for their children but for their loved ones trapped amidst a war zone. I never understood as a child how my parents and relatives would gather together every weekend to raise funds to cover the funeral costs of a relative they never met or purchase plane tickets to neighboring countries for children whose parents were recently killed on the streets of Mogadishu. They would send these funds immediately without hesitation although my dad had no idea how we would cover the rent next month or purchase groceries the next day. I came to understand that for many diaspora communities, remittances not only provide financial assistance to loved ones but allow migrants to maintain a familiar connection with the land they never imagined would become a former home. I have repeatedly witnessed how those who have been presented with an opportunity to provide their loved ones with financial and physical security are eager to pay it forward to others who are not as fortunate. Even though many of these individuals and their families are not in a position to financially support others, they are always the first to open their homes and their hearts to strangers. We have yet to learn from their hospitality and selflessness towards serving others, and we must first seek to instill within our hearts love for every single member of our human family to correct our many shortcomings.
Khadija Mohamud (SFS'17) is an undergraduate studying international politics at Georgetown.