Following a Displaced Immanuel: Advent Reflections on a Faithful Response to the Refugee Crisis
Lora, Humanitarian Policy Advisor, draws a striking parallel between the Christmas story and today’s refugee crisis. Framing Jesus’ birth and life as a profound act of solidarity with the displaced and marginalised, she urges global leaders to confront the reality of rising displacement. With millions forced from their homes, Lora calls for decisive action at the Global Refugee Forum—to uphold refugee rights, protect children, and ensure dignity and inclusion for all people on the move.
Just over two millennia ago, a small child crossed international borders, fleeing the systematic killing of children his age in his ethic group. Born far from home in a makeshift shelter without adequate medical care, to parents originating from a no-name town in an impoverished region of the country, this child was no other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
The coming of Jesus teaches us that the God of the Universe identifies in an especially intimate way with people who are marginalised, persecuted, and forcibly displaced, that he became one of them, and that imitating this solidarity is an essential part of walking in his footsteps.
Jesus’s Example of Solidarity
Through the incarnation, our Lord voluntarily set aside unfathomable privilege to uplift, redeem, and restore broken humanity. On earth, he experienced forced displacement first-hand, enduring a night-time flight to Egypt to evade a violent crackdown. A day labourer by profession, he lived a nomadic lifestyle, finding community with people outcast from mainstream society, navigating persecution from religious elites and occupying forces, and preaching about a kingdom where children and people at the margins will be first. Jesus knew what it was like to walk miles on dusty roads with insufficient food and to depend day after day on the generosity of others for his basic needs. He experienced what it felt like to face hostility as an outsider and backlash while advocating for justice and redemption in an occupied nation, to lean on strangers for welcome, shelter, and hospitality, and to suffer discrimination and human rights violations.
At the heart of the Christmas story, therefore, lies a deep concern for people who are displaced, impoverished, and struggling for survival. Throughout his ministry, Jesus encountered all types of people with compassion and meaningful action. He responded to both physical and spiritual needs, offering food, healing, freedom, community, and hope. The people who met him—regardless of their identity, nationality, or social status—left transformed and empowered by his love and motivated to follow in his footsteps.
Refugee Rights Under Pressure
At the end of 2024, over 123 million people worldwide—equal to 1 in 67 people on earth—were forcibly displaced from their homes. This is the highest number ever recorded and continues a concerning trend of rising displacement over the past decade.
Nearly 43 million of these individuals, including 19 million children, fled across international borders—each carrying unique stories of hardship, resilience, and hope. After escaping human rights violations and other dangers in their countries of origin, however, asylum seekers and refugees continue to face disproportionate risks, including restricted access to education, protection, and healthcare services and limited pathways for economic and social inclusion. These risks undermine children’s safety, well-being, and healthy development in the present and threaten their ability to fulfil future aspirations.
In 2025, a new wave of challenges, including record levels of armed conflict and escalating climate catastrophes, pushed millions more children out of their homes. At the same time, rhetorical attacks on the rights and dignity of displaced people, restrictive policy environments, and reduced funding slashed critical safety nets that refugees depend on.
The 1951 Refugee Convention, the foundational international legal framework on refugee protections, guarantees the right to education, housing, decent work, freedom of movement, and social protection—among other entitlements—to people crossing international borders while fleeing violence and persecution. The Global Compact on Refugees, established in 2018, further promotes progress and accountability towards realizing these rights through concrete commitments to protect, support, and include refugees. On the 15th to 17th of December, global leaders, advocates, and refugee representatives will gather at the 2025 Global Refugee Forum Progress Review in Geneva, Switzerland, to assess the status of these commitments and to identify gaps where further advocacy and action is needed.
Advent’s Call to Action
Advent challenges us to consider the situations of people fleeing danger worldwide through the eyes of Jesus and to allow his example to shape how we respond to our neighbours experiencing the worst effects of war, violence, discrimination, and climate chaos. God identifies with and cares deeply about people on the move, people displaced from their homes, experiencing poverty and uncertainty, and denied their rights.
As a Christian humanitarian, development, and advocacy organisation, World Vision takes God’s call to promote justice for every human being seriously. We seek to emulate the example of Jesus, Immanuel, “God with Us”, who walked most closely on earth with the people most excluded and vulnerable in his society and who knew first-hand what it felt like to be a child refugee.
At the 2025 Progress Review, World Vision will join partner organisations in urging governments, donors, international organisations, and other stakeholders to take urgent and decisive action to:
- Uphold international law and defend the international asylum system;
- Reverse drastic funding shortfalls undermining services for people with no other options;
- Advance pathways to inclusion of refugees in national systems and expand support for host countries shouldering these costs;
- Address practical barriers refugees face in accessing their entitlements, such as a lack of transportation, financial services, and documentation;
- Ensure refugee children’s full and sustainable access to food, education, healthcare, shelter, protection, mental health services, and other supports necessary for their holistic wellbeing and healthy development; and
- Create safe and meaningful pathways for the voices of refugee and stateless children to shape national and international policies.
We encourage people of faith to join us in following Jesus’s example and advocating for justice and inclusion for people fleeing disasters, war, and persecution globally. At World Vision, we believe all children are made in the image of God with inherent rights. This Advent season, we invite you to walk with us through prayer and action towards a world where every child—regardless of status or origin—can experience safety, dignity, and fullness of life.
About the autor:
Lora Boll, a Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Advisor at World Vision International, drives evidence-based advocacy on child-focused humanitarian action, displacement, and reform. She brings five years’ experience in policy analysis and holds a Master’s in Social Work, Policy, and Administration from the University of Chicago.