The Vital Role of Faith Communities in the Lives of Urban Refugees
A Case Study of Christian Response to Refugee Populations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Keywords:
urban refugees, Christian response to refugees, religion
Abstract
The majority of the world’s refugees do not live in refugee camps, but in cities around the world. Realities for urban refugees are vastly different from the conditions of a refugee camp. Urban refugees lack the institutional supports of official refugee camps and often have minimal legal covering in their host cities. Without government support and the limited capacity of UNHCR to provide adequate help, it is left to citizens of the host cities to provide help. Kuala Lumpur (KL) is home to more than 150,000 refugees and even more asylum seekers. These population numbers could be overwhelming to a city without help from its citizenry. This paper will examine ways in which Christian churches have welcomed and helped this large refugee population when few others would help. Guided by a biblical command to welcome “the strangerâ€, churches have sacrificed greatly to impact the lives of refugees in several key areas: education, employment, health care, and spiritual vitality. Because faith communities operate outside of governmental and non-governmental bureaucratic structures, their work often goes unnoticed. The work of these faith communities in KL is not an isolated event but serves as one case study of similar work happening in cities all over the world.
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References
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Crane, Michael D. “Refugees in the Urban Wilderness: Plight of Refugees in Landing Cities and Opportunities for Response.†International Journal of Urban Transformation 1, no. 1 (October 2016): 51–70.
Ding, Emily. “Malaysia’s Coronavirus Scapegoats.†Foreign Policy, June 19, 2020. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/19/malaysias-coronavirus-scapegoats/.
Erickson, Victoria Lee. “Georg Simmel: American Sociology Chooses the Stone the Builders Refused.†In The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion, edited by Richard K. Fenn, 105–18. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
UNHCR. “Figures at a Glance in Malaysia,†November 2019. https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance-in-malaysia.html.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International. “Healthcare for Struggling Refugee Communities in Malaysia,†September 20, 2019. https://www.msf.org/healthcare-struggling-refugee-communities-malaysia.
Hoffstaedter, Gerhard. “Arrested Refugee Mobilities: Bordering Techniques in Malaysia.†Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 34, no. 3 (2019): 521–46.
Houten, Christiana van. Alien in Israelite Law. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 107. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991.
Jansen, Mechteld. “Christian Migrants and the Theology of Space and Place.†In Contested Spaces, Common Ground: Space and Power Structures in Contemporary Multireligious Societies, edited by Ulrich Winkler, Lidia Rodriguez Fernandez, and Oddbjorn Leirvik, 147–61. Leiden; Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2017.
Malaysian Bar Association. “Malaysian Law and Migrant Workers and Refugees.†Presented at the National Diaspora Symposium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 6, 2015.
Marquardt, Marie Friedmann. “Hospitality as Resistance: Religious Responses to the Trend toward ‘Local Enforcement’ in the United States.†In Rescripting Religion in the City: Migration and Religious Identity in the Modern Metropolis, 247–60. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2013.
Mathews, Kenneth, and M. Sydney Park. The Post-Racial Church: A Biblical Framework for Multiethnic Reconciliation. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2011.
Muggah, Robert. “Cities Need to Welcome--Not Resist--Refugees.†CityLab, October 2, 2018. https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2018/10/global-refugee-crisis-role-of-cities/571876/.
Muggah, Robert, and Adriana Erthal Abdenur. “Refugees and the City: The Twenty-First-Century Front Line.†World Refugee Council, July 2018. https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/WRC%20Research%20Paper%20no.2.pdf.
Nah, Alice M. “Refugees and Space in Urban Areas in Malaysia.†Forced Migration Review 34 (2010): 29–31.
Nazri, Atika Shafinaz, Kartini Aboo Talib, and Nidzam Sulaiman. “Syrian Muslim Refugees in Malaysia: The Narratives and Survivability.†Islam Realitas: Journal of Islamic & Social Studies 5, no. 2 (December 1, 2019): 130–44. https://doi.org/10.30983/islam_realitas.v5i2.2106.
Nordin, Rohaida, Suzarika Sahak, and Ma Kalthum Ishak. “The Plight of Refugees in Malaysia: Malaysia as a Transit Country in Protecting Refugees’ Rights.†Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS) 5, no. 1 (January 30, 2020): 378–94. https://doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp378-394.
Norwood, Frederick A. Strangers and Exiles: A History of Religious Refugees, Vol. I. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1969.
Paulsen, Eric. “The Future for Refugees in M’sia.†The Star Online. June 16, 2019. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/16/the-future-for-refugees-in-msia.
Qasmiyeh, Yousif M., and Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh. “Refugee Camps and Cities in Conversation.†In Rescripting Religion in the City: Migration and Religious Identity in the Modern Metropolis, edited by Jane Garnett and Alana Harris, 131–47. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2013.
Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. “Figures at a Glance.†UNHCR. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html.
Reuters. “No Jobs, No Rights: Refugees Suffer in Limbo in Malaysia.†New Straights Times Online, August 15, 2019. https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/08/512886/no-jobs-no-rights-refugees-suffer-limbo-malaysia.
Shaw, Stacey A., Veena Pillai, and Kaitlin P. Ward. “Assessing Mental Health and Service Needs Among Refugees in Malaysia.†International Journal of Social Welfare 28, no. 1 (January 2019): 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12313.
Smith, Amy A. In Search of Survival and Sanctuary in the City: Refugees from Myanmar/Burma in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: IRC, 2012. http://www.rescue.org/resource-file/search-survival-and-sanctuary-city-refugees-myanmarburma-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-decembe.
Smith, Huston. The Religions of Man. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.
Snyder, Susanna, Zayn Kassam, Anna Rowlands, and Narzanin Massoumi. “Theologies and Ethics of Migration: Muslim and Christian Perspectives.†In Rescripting Religion in the City: Migration and Religious Identity in the Modern Metropolis, edited by Jane Garnett and Alana Harris, 17–36. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2013.
Soerens, Matthew, and Jenny Hwang. Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2009.
Tiwari, Anubhav Dutt, Jessica Field, and Yamini Mookherjee. “Urban Refugees in Delhi: Refugee Networks, Faith and Well-Being.†International Institute for Environment and Development, 2017. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep16605.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Resettlement.†UNHCR, 2016. http://www.unhcr.org/resettlement.html.
USA for UNHCR. “What Is a Refugee,†2016. http://www.unrefugees.org/what-is-a-refugee/.
Wong, Andrew. “A Record 68.5 Million People Were Forcibly Displaced in 2017. It’s Predicted to Get Worse.†CNBC, July 1, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/refugee-crisis-a-record-number-of-those-forcibly-displaced-in-2017.html.
Published
2020-12-03
How to Cite
Crane, M. D. (2020). The Vital Role of Faith Communities in the Lives of Urban Refugees: A Case Study of Christian Response to Refugee Populations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. International Journal of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies, 3(2), 25-37. https://doi.org/10.32795/ijiis.vol3.iss2.2020.708
Section
Articles
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