In the changing landscape of demographics in North America, immigrant families and their teenagers present a unique context for youth ministry. Before joining Rooted, I was the youth and family pastor at a large immigrant church for 29 years, and our youth group was about 250 students. Early in those 29 years, most of the families consisted of parents who spoke their native language. Meanwhile, their teenagers were usually English-speakers, who were growing up as your average American teenager.
While today more parents are English-speakers, the bicultural nature of many immigrant families means that youth workers will need understanding to serve teenagers in immigrant families, as well as their parents or caretakers. These reflections will help us better serve our immigrant families, whether you have just a few in attendance or serve in an immigrant church.
Biculturalism Within Immigrant Families
Generally speaking, biculturalism is proficiency and degrees of comfort with both one’s heritage culture and with the culture of the country or region in which one has settled. Not only immigrants themselves but also children of immigrants are bicultural. Though children of immigrants may have been born and raised in the receiving society, they are likely to be embedded in their heritage culture when with their families.
The socialization process of teenagers who are part of immigrant families is a complicated process. These teenagers reconcile two cultural environments: the original culture into which they were born and the host culture in which they find themselves. Some teenagers in immigrant families might consider themselves fully “American,” while others might identify with a bi-cultural identity or with their native identity.
Ultimately, then, it is important to get to know each teenager from an immigrant family as an individual, and to not clump them into one huge category. Who they are and the particular culture with which they identify will be different for each of them. The same can be true for their parents. You can’t assume that because someone is an immigrant, has a certain job, or speaks some English that they are or are not assimilated into American culture. Take time to get to know each family and teenager.
Implications of Immigration Status
I am often asked, what you do you when you do not know the exact immigration status of an immigrant family?
First, there is no legal obligation to report someone you suspect is in the United States illegally.
Second, it is best not to assume a person’s immigration status.
Third, teachers and school authorities are not allowed to ask about the immigration status of children or their families. They can require proof of residency status in their school district, but families of immigrants have the legal right to attend a school regardless of immigration status. From a pastoral perspective, despite some differences in perspectives among Christians, it is not against the law to welcome a family into your home or to serve them in the love of Christ in various ways, even if they are undocumented.
What Can You Do?
The acclaimed movie “Minari” tells the story of a Korean immigrant family starting a new life on a remote Midwestern farm, where they are the only Koreans. They decide to go to church one Sunday, and a little girl approaches them, seemingly speaking gibberish (English), and reaches out her hand and heart to them.
What can we do as a youth ministers when teenager from immigrant families come to our churches?
First, we need to humbly recognize that we are all a product of our culture and history.
Second, we need to exercise awareness of our own biases and presuppositions, formed through our own cultural context and historical background. We have values that might be different from a person’s of a different place.
Finally, take an open interest in them. Recognize, be sensitive, understand, and appreciate others’ ethnic heritage and cultural context. Each teenager and family is unique. Some might need help with the English language or with understanding American culture. Others might be fully assimilated into American culture. It is important look beneath surface level.
For immigrant families who have transitioned more recently to this country, I have loved and served them as a pastor by functioning as a pseudo social worker. I have helped families and teenagers adapt to life in America, register for school, understand information from officials, and translate materials from English into their native language. And sometimes parents just need help understanding their teenagers, who have become or are becoming culturally and socially distinct from their native culture. Being a culture translator for families can be a meaningful way to serve them and to show them the love of Jesus.
Love Your Neighbor
Jesus commands us to respond to his love for us by sharing it with others. Jesus says, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).
Our Savior calls us to love all our neighbors, whatever their culture and wherever their native home. Do not hesitate to reach out to immigrants and their families. Seek to know and to care for fellow image-bearers in the love of Christ to the praise of his name.
If you’re looking for support in gospel-centered ministry to families, consider applying for Rooted’s family ministry mentorship. Our next cohort begins in February.
