One of the strongest themes in the New Testament is the importance of Christian unity.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Eph 4:3 NIV
I am deeply alarmed at how Christians today are divided by bitter culture wars.
We cannot solve this problem by some collective decision to have no disagreements between us. All attempts to eliminate different beliefs only make the disunity worse. There are conservative American Christians who declare that Democrat voters cannot be Christians. This approach only escalates the religious civil war.
The questions that divide us cannot be swept under the carpet, but we must attempt to present our beliefs in a calm and rational way, rather than hurling abuse at one another.
I have written these thoughts about one of the hotly disputed issues, immigration and multiculturalism. I am clearly in favour of multicultural immigration but I have tried to present my opinion in a calm logical way.
There are conservative voters and conservative Christians who oppose mass migration. One of their concerns is that skilled migrants will sponsor their parents who are of retirement age and will not be productive workers in our economy.
I believe there is a serious contradiction here. They say they want to promote family values, but many migrants, including sponsored grandparents and less skilled workers are making a massive contribution to family life in Australia.
Many if not most migrants of childbearing age are having children to boost our dangerously low birthrate. Only professional or business migrants on high salaries are able to buy a house or even pay the rent without two incomes, so many migrant wives have to have paid jobs, just like Australian born wives. So who is going to look after the children while they work. The answer is simple, grandparents.
So migrant grandparents are not unproductive after all. They maintain family stability, and isn’t what conservative Christian voters want? Not only do they indirectly contribute to a more productive workforce. They reduce the pressure on our childcare system. They also contribute to the emotional stability of migrant workers, parents and children. When people are more emotionally stable, they will be better able to adapt to a new culture.
In some ethnic groups, grandparents may exert pressure to cling to religious and cultural ways that hinder integration in Australia. We shouldn’t ignore this. On the other hand, most migrants learn to speak fluent English and work productively in Australian workplaces.
What many conservative people fail to recognise, is that bilingualism is an asset to families, individuals and the wider community. With bilingualism comes also biculturalism. Being torn between two cultures can be difficult, but if people in the Australian host culture respect diverse cultures, it makes it much easier for children to grow up adapting to both cultures with as little stress as possible. Respecting parents and grandparents is an essential family value.
But many are alarmed at the increased numbers of Muslims and Hindus. Conservative people want to maintain our Christian heritage. They overlook a very important fact. A very high percentage of migrants from Asia and Africa are not only nominally Christian, like many Australians, but actively practising Christian believers.
The Christian foundation of our society is becoming weaker. The best antidote to this is a larger number of actively believing practising Christians. Campaigning for Christian laws will not restore our Christian cultural heritage. What we need is more people with real personal faith who actively follow Jesus. The biggest increase in the number of Christian believers is coming through immigration.
Many people are seriously concerned about the housing crisis. If immigration slows down dramatically, there may be fewer people in need of accommodation. But we need skilled professionals. On the other hand, most skilled professionals have parents and children. Families need houses to live in. On the other hand, many Asian and African families live together, three generations under the same roof. In this way, migrant families might require fewer houses per person than the majority of Australians.
In addition to this, a great number of migrants are building houses. We need skilled tradespeople as well a health professionals, engineers and computer specialists. We also have an urgent need for aged care workers. Without migrant aged care workers, our society would fall apart.
