You Know the Feelings of an Alien

You Know the Feelings of an Alien
EXODUS 22: 15- 23: 19

There are aliens who freely choose to live in a foreign country, and there are aliens who felt they were driven to do so (and then there are the aliens who come on spaceships). I am an alien and that occasionally causes me a problem. On our first Independence Day in the United States, I flew a British flag as a joke and discovered that my neighbors took the United States’ independence too seriously for this to be funny. I had things to learn about the culture if I was not to get into trouble. After twelve years I can still accidentally offend people by the way I say things. I have taxation without representation, but it is my choice. Most aliens in the United States or in Britain, whether or not they have papers, have a choice only in a formal sense. They are in a foreign country because circumstances drove them there, like Elimelech and his family in the story of Ruth. They probably wish they were home. They do the jobs citizens don’t want to do. They are marginalized. When recession comes, they are among its first victims. They are unlikely to have as good health care as the average citizen. It is easy to take advantage of them...