Toward an Asian American Pastoral Theology of Radical Hospitality: Caring for Undocumented Migrants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although the media and the public generally take it for granted that the U.S. migration crisis, especially the case of the undocumented migrants, is a Latinx problem, one should not overlook that the number of unauthorized immigrants from nations other than Mexico (especially from Asia) has grown since 2009. Despite this new trend, there have seldom been any scholarly works on how Asian American Christian communities should offer pastoral care to their undocumented neighbors among themselves. The purpose of this paper is to provide a pastoral theological framework for Asian American churches and their leaders so that they might become better pastoral caregivers and advocates to the rising number of undocumented people within their communities. In doing so, this paper first analyzes how the sociocultural ideology of ‘model minority’ prevents the Asian American communities from being open and inclusive. It, then, explores how the ideology should be replaced by a theological idea of ‘radical hospitality.’