The Angels I Have Met

I am an immigrant. More specifically, I am a migrant.

White Westerners often prefer the term “expat” when discussing moving to a country that’s different to their own. But in the end, it means the same thing. We are people who have chosen to leave our home country to make a life somewhere else.

I am in France. The culture, the food, the language are not my own. Every time I need to do some kind of administrative task, whether that’s visa related or even down to contacting the electric company, it takes extra work and extra steps that it wouldn’t if I were in the USA.

Now, this is not to say that my family is in anywhere near the same position as the people that we serve. We chose to come here. We are white with a culture that is much closer to Western Europe than most of the guests we welcome. The authorities seldom ask for our documents.

The point I’m trying to make here is that we aren’t from here, and yet we are welcomed with open arms, but the people that we serve are constantly in fear of being arrested, tear gassed, or being kidnapped.

This is what separates those who call themselves expats from those we refer to as migrants.

And so my family have chosen to become immigrants in order to serve an immigrant population. And our experience has highlighted the differences between how we are treated in contrast to how the people we serve are treated.

We believe that all people should be treated with a minimum of dignity and respect, the same way that my wife, children and I are treated. And that is what we’re trying to do in Calais.

Migration has played a major role in human history for millennia, and this time is no different.

So as we begin our lives in 2026, let’s remember those who came before us. For almost 100 per cent of US citizens, we can trace our lineage back to immigration. For Europeans, migration has played a key role in the history of this continent, both inward and outward.

God calls us consistently through the Scriptures to welcome the stranger and the foreigner, going so far as to tell us, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).

I have met some angels in my work. There are angels drowning in the English Channel every moth. And they deserve better.