A Journey Called Hope: Today’s Immigrant Stories and the American Dream

by Rick Rouse, Rick Steves (foreword)

Author Rick Rouse weaves a tapestry of immigrant experiences—successes, hopes, challenges, and dreams that have often unfolded amidst global conflicts and political polarization. These narratives inspire compassion as “these least of these” search for a safe haven and discover how diversity enriches America and our faith. While the American story aspires to be the story of welcome and refuge for all, our history often tells a different story. As wars are raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, creating millions of refugees merely seeking safety, American politics remains so polarized that the government appears deadlocked or unable to act on meaningful solutions to immigration policies. In A Journey Called Hope, author Rick Rouse shares the stories of immigrants from around the world to America — their successes, hopes, challenges, and dreams. He explores how we can share our planet with the understanding that it is a matter of human dignity for all people to have a safe place to call home. In sharing these inspiring stories and hope-filled futures, Rouse assures us the United States is still a nation of promise made richer by its diversity.

156 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2024

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this time of stubborn divisions, one can only hope that this book can penetrate through the walls of the silos where we hear only viewpoints with which we already agree. All twelve chapters of A Journey Called Hope are followed by questions for reflection. An individual reader will enrich the experience of going through this book by spending time with these questions. Moreover, they may be used as an outline for discussions in a neighborhood or church group. Chalice Press offers discounts for group purchases. Best of all, the author can join a group discussion by Zoom.

A Lutheran pastor and professor, Rick Rouse, has compiled this collection of immigrants' stories about the American dream. Travel writer Rick Steves, in his foreword, compares immigration to travel; it benefits us to “meet strangers.” Readers of A Journey Called Hope meet strangers in their stories. These are “people who have no choice but to travel in search of safety and survival . . . and in hope of a better life.”

In Part One, Rouse reviews competing visions of the American dream and immigration. On the one hand, the familiar words of poet Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty open the first chapter—Give me your tired. Your poor. Your huddled masses . . . wretched refuse, etc. On the other hand, the early settlers and their Anglo-Saxon Protestant descendants welcomed folk like themselves—not anyone’s wretched refuse. White supremacy was a commonly assumed, nearly unconscious, component of “America,” of the United States. Therefore, immigration laws favored White Anglo-Saxon Protestants over Roman Catholic or Jewish people. Chinese workers came and built the transcontinental railroad but were feared as foreigners and excluded from citizenship. Mexicans came to enable the boom in agriculture but were rounded up and deported. Catholics and Jews came in the early twentieth century but, like Black Americans, were segregated and discriminated against in housing, education, and employment opportunities. All the while, and particularly at the end of World War II, a handful of effective faith-based organizations worked to resettle immigrants, especially refugees.

Part Two presents a series of dramatic stories told by refugees fleeing dangers in Congo, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Peru, Ukraine, Guatemala, and Cuba. These persons found the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the United States with the assistance of Americans who welcomed their immigration.

In Part Three of his book, Rouse declares the real possibilities for positive outcomes from welcoming immigrants to the United States. He lists and gives examples of five ways our nation could move beyond polarization on the issue of immigration: (1) Love the neighbor. (2) Try civil discourse. (3) Practice compassion. (4) Live with a spirit of generosity. (5) Embrace diversity.

Whether individually or as part of a group, readers will find A Journey Called Hope “user friendly” as well as thought provoking. I hope it stimulates fresh dialogue about immigration, and not merely talk, but action.