Children and Migration

Migrating children have the upside of being more adaptable than adults in many ways.  Kids can learn new ways and pick up langauges and accents in ways that are often much harder for their parents and grandparents.  Thats a real advantage!  But kids are also more vulnerable.  Moving is traumatic in ways that adults aren't as conscious of.  Kids are also vulnerable to abuse from neighbors and others in ways that migrating families need to be really aware of.  Kids will change in a way as they migrate

You may decide to find a faith community among your home culture people in your new country and in many ways that may work well for your kids.  Its also important to remember that your kids will carry an identity in their future that is informed by your home culture but they will also feel some distance from that.  What will we do about their faith and Christian identity as they get older and ask questions about where they most belong?  

(The following are thoughts from Harvey Kwiyani's substack

From where I stand, it is very plausible that the future of Christianity and mission in Europe will depend, to a fair extent, on the faith and ministries of children of migrant Christians from around the world who are currently living in Europe. Thus, ministry to what has come to be called the “second-generation diaspora” is critical. The question is, “who is discipling the younger generation diaspora?” Or, indeed, who is doing this well? The challenges facing the Black Christian community in London, for example, affect all of us. They are not a black-church problem that white churches can avoid. We cannot be well when one part of the Body is suffering. Of course, there is always a cost to migration. A friend of mine says, “Migrating to the UK has been a double loss for me. I lost my community back home (in Jamaica) and I lost my children here.”Growing up a child of a migrant means living with all the nuances that make every migrant’s life; the contradictions between belonging and being a perpetual strange ‘other,’ negotiating the space between being an insider and an outsider at the same time, and the conflicting identities of who they really are and who their people are. It also means trying hard to fit in at school while watching parents struggle with their own cross-cultural maelstrom. For some, this means having to maintain perfect grades at school while helping out in their parents’ hustles, be it a church, a catering or a cleaning business. Oftentimes, it means being their parents’ language and cultural interpreter while also trying to make sense of their own new cultural context as well. For many, it means not only watching but internalising the impact of the racism and marginalisation that their parents have to negotiate (often from fellow Christians). If you really believed that these migrant children are the future missionaries in the West—that they will disciple your children and grandchildren, would you treat them and their parents differently? Would your posture to migrant churches change a little?