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A Sukkah is temporary. Refugees deserve a permanent home
With refugees facing decades before permanent settlement, this Sukkot is a moment to speak up for security and sanctuary
Does a Sukkah represent fragility or strength? It’s a question I often find myself contemplating in the run-up to this wonderful festival.
On the one hand, it’s clearly a temporary dwelling. Our Sukkah is there for just seven or eight days; it isn’t a replacement for our permanent homes. But on the other hand, it needs strong walls. It must keep us sheltered: the Sukkah’s structure has to be strong enough to provide safety.
Those two themes – and the balance between them – are central to my work with refugees and people seeking asylum.
My ambition is to empower those we support to integrate and build stable foundations, safe from the precarity of the conflict, persecution and war they have escaped. But for too many, hostile policies and narratives create an environment in which precarity and vulnerability continue to dominate their lives. That can’t be right for people who have reached sanctuary in the UK.
So, as I sit in my Sukkah this week – hoping that the good weather holds – I am reflecting on how precious protection is. That’s in the knowledge that in a few days, I can return to the stability of home life, a right we all deserve.
Yet for refugees in the UK, that wait for permanence is far longer than the week of Sukkot. Under a new government policy, new refugees may have to wait as long as 30 years before they can settle permanently in the UK. Until then, for the vast majority, their protection will only be temporary – subject to review every 30 months.
For me, there’s a fundamental issue of fairness here. People who have escaped some of the worst horrors imaginable surely deserve far better than being left in uncertainty, potentially for decades. Imagine what that means in reality. Children starting a school year, unsure whether they will finish it in this country. Parents – who want nothing more than to find work, integrate and thrive in our society – are only able to plan 30 months ahead, a barrier for many employers.
This is a fitting time to consider permanence and change: Sukkot arrives as many young people in our community begin the first week of university. Shouldn’t we want that same prospect of a brighter future for people who arrive in need today?
Because you only have to look at what our community has achieved to see what refugees can do as permanent residents of Britain. Of course, we find ourselves in a very different context today, but most of the Jewish refugees who arrived here before the Second World War did so on temporary visas. Many subsequently became naturalised citizens after 1946. I’m sure I won’t need to convince Jewish News readers of what they went on to contribute; yet under today’s rules, I don’t doubt that post-war Germany – the country my grandparents had fled – would have been deemed safe for return.
So, if, like me, you feel drawn to call for today’s refugees to receive the security of permanent welcome we once needed, I invite you to join my organisation in speaking out. We need politicians to hear our values and reflect our leadership of compassion and responsibility.
That’s why we’ve partnered with JPIT – the public affairs team of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church – and René Cassin to unite communities at an interfaith lobby in Parliament on 17 November.
I would love Jewish News readers to join us at the lobby next month. Our movement has a simple message – welcoming refugees makes our society stronger. Together, across our faith traditions, we’re determined that our vision of a fair and just asylum system will prevail.
Your voice can be a critical part of that. The need to act is clear: we cannot be bystanders as the government introduces some of the biggest changes to refugee protection since the UK signed the Refugee Convention in 1951. Our history must compel us to act.
This Sukkot, I hope you will stand with us to help give refugees a safe and secure sense of home.
Visit hiasjcore.org/faith-united-welcome to get involved.
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