Immigrants Have Been Severely Impacted by COVID-19. Your Church Can Help.

While many of us are seeing our situations improve, others are only becoming more vulnerable.

Immigrants and refugees are among the groups hardest hit by the novel coronavirus in the U.S. Economically, they are among the most vulnerable; before the pandemic, immigrants made up 31% of hotel workers, 37% of small restaurant owners, and 22% of food service workers.

Now, many are unemployed, lacking health care,and often ineligible for government relief programs. For example, very recently arrived refugees did not qualify for stimulus payments, nor did undocumented immigrants, including those whom our government has invited and required to file and pay income taxes using a special Individual Taxpayer Identification Number because they do not qualify for Social Security Numbers.

In fact, even the estimated 1.2 million U.S. citizen spouses married to undocumented immigrants were excluded if they jointly filed their taxes.

These are just numbers, but the faces behind them are real people. As the president of World Relief, I have witnessed both their dignity and their struggle. Those who belong to a church community are the lucky ones, because most have no one else to turn to for help.

Other immigrants make up a disproportionate percentage of essential workers, which puts them in a high-risk group for being exposed to the virus.

One in four doctors in the U.S. is an immigrant. More than one in three home health workers – a profession that’s becoming increasingly important as the virus spreads through nursing homes and other care facilities – are foreign-born. So are over a third of workers in meat processing, crop production, and public transportation.

Many came to this country alone. In refugee camps around the world, their families have been waiting to join them, completing paperwork and other formalities.

Some …

Continue reading

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.