35 Bible Verses For New Immigrant Families

God commanded His people to treat immigrants well because they were immigrants themselves in Egypt for 400 years.

Abraham left his homeland and lived as a foreigner in Canaan.

Joseph was trafficked to Egypt and spent years as an immigrant slave and prisoner.

Ruth left Moab and immigrated to Israel as a poor widow.

Jesus fled to Egypt as a refugee baby escaping genocide.

Immigration isn’t a political issue to God. It’s a human reality He addresses repeatedly throughout Scripture because His people experienced it constantly.

Most Christians born in their home countries have no framework for understanding the isolation, fear, cultural disorientation, and practical challenges immigrant families face daily.

You left everything familiar hoping for better opportunities.

You’re navigating new systems, learning a new language, missing family you left behind, and trying to build stability in a place that doesn’t always welcome you.

God sees your struggle. He hasn’t forgotten you in this transition.

Immigration Requires Faith That God’s Provision Isn’t Limited By Geography

You left your support system, familiar employment options, and cultural context hoping things would be better here. Some days that feels like terrible miscalculation.

Everything’s harder than you expected. The language barrier creates daily frustration.

Credentials from your home country don’t transfer. Jobs you’re overqualified for won’t hire you. Housing costs more than you anticipated.

You’re educated, skilled, and capable but feel invisible or undervalued in systems that don’t recognize your experience.

That’s demoralizing in ways people who’ve never immigrated can’t understand.

Meanwhile, you’re supporting family back home who depend on money you send while trying to establish yourself here. The pressure is crushing some days.

God didn’t bring you this far to abandon you. He’s not limited by borders, bureaucracy, or cultural barriers. His provision flows wherever His people go.

Abraham lived in tents his entire life in a land God promised him but never gave him. He died without owning the property, but God provided throughout the journey.

Your current struggle doesn’t mean you made the wrong decision or that God’s abandoned His plan. It means you’re in the adjustment season that all immigrants face.

Keep trusting. Keep working. Keep praying. God’s with you in this transition.

Bible Verses For New Immigrant Families

1. Leviticus 19:33-34 – Do Not Mistreat Foreigners

When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

New International Version (NIV)

Don’t mistreat foreigners. Love them as yourself. You were foreigners once too.

2. Deuteronomy 10:18-19 – He Defends the Cause

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

English Standard Version (ESV)

God loves foreigners and provides for them. Love them because you were foreigners.

3. Exodus 22:21 – Do Not Wrong a Stranger

You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

New King James Version (NKJV)

Don’t mistreat or oppress foreigners. You were strangers in Egypt.

4. Matthew 25:35 – I Was a Stranger

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.

New Living Translation (NLT)

When you welcomed strangers, you welcomed Jesus Himself.

5. Hebrews 13:2 – Do Not Forget to Show Hospitality

Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Show hospitality to strangers. Some have entertained angels unknowingly.

6. Psalm 146:9 – The Lord Watches Over

The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, but He thwarts the way of the wicked.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

God watches over foreigners. He supports them and provides for them.

7. Ruth 2:11-12 – May the Lord Repay You

And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity.

King James Version (KJV)

Boaz blessed Ruth for leaving her country to care for her mother-in-law.

8. Leviticus 25:35 – Support Them

If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they cannot support themselves, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

If foreigners living with you become poor, support them as you would family.

9. Deuteronomy 24:17 – Do Not Deprive

Don’t take advantage of a widow or an orphan. Don’t even think of taking the cloak of a widow as security for a loan.

The Message (MSG)

Don’t deny justice to foreigners or orphans. Protect their rights.

10. Jeremiah 22:3 – Do Justice

Thus says the Lord: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow.

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Do justice and righteousness. Don’t wrong foreigners, orphans, or widows.

11. Zechariah 7:10 – Do Not Oppress

You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.

New English Translation (NET)

Don’t oppress foreigners, widows, orphans, or the poor.

12. Malachi 3:5 – I Will Be a Swift Witness

I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and those who defraud the laborer of his wages; and against those who turn away the temporary resident.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

God will witness against those who oppress foreigners and workers.

13. Exodus 23:9 – You Know the Heart of a Stranger

And you must not mistreat foreigners. You know what it is like to be a foreigner. Remember your own experience in the country of Egypt.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Don’t oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like because you were foreigners.

14. Psalm 37:25 – I Have Not Seen the Righteous Forsaken

I have been young and now am old, but I have never seen good people left helpless or their children begging for food.

Good News Translation (GNT)

I’ve never seen righteous people abandoned or their children begging.

15. Deuteronomy 26:5 – A Wandering Aramean

Then you should say before the LORD your God, “My ancestor was a wandering Aramean who went to Egypt. There were only a few in his family, but they became a great, powerful, and large nation.

New Century Version (NCV)

Remember your ancestor was a wandering foreigner who became a great nation.

16. Isaiah 56:3-7 – Foreigners Who Bind Themselves

Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will exclude me from his people.”

International Standard Version (ISV)

Foreigners who join themselves to God shouldn’t say He’ll exclude them.

17. Genesis 12:1 – Go From Your Country

Now ADONAI said to Abram, “Get going out from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.

Tree of Life Version (TLV)

God told Abraham to leave his country and go to a land He would show him.

18. Ephesians 2:19 – No Longer Strangers

Consequently, therefore, you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of God’s household.

Lexham English Bible (LEB)

You’re no longer foreigners but fellow citizens with God’s people.

19. Matthew 2:13-15 – Flee to Egypt

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.”

World English Bible (WEB)

Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus to escape Herod. They were refugees.

20. Leviticus 19:10 – Leave Them for the Poor

And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am Jehovah your God.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Leave some harvest for the poor and foreigners. Provide for them.

21. Hebrews 11:13 – Strangers and Exiles

These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

They lived as strangers and exiles on earth, looking for their heavenly home.

22. Numbers 15:15-16 – The Same Law

You and the resident alien will be treated exactly the same before the LORD.

New American Bible (NAB)

The same law applies to citizens and foreigners. God treats them equally.

23. Deuteronomy 1:16 – Hear the Cases

Heare the causes betwene your brethren, and iudge righteously betwene euery man and his brother, and the straunger that is with him.

Douay-Rheims Bible (DRB)

Judge fairly between your people and foreigners living among you.

24. Ezekiel 47:22 – Allot Them an Inheritance

And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you.

English Revised Version (ERV)

Give foreigners living among you inheritance just like native-born citizens.

25. Jeremiah 29:7 – Seek the Welfare

And seek the peace of the city whither I have removed you, and pray unto Jehovah for it; for in its peace ye shall have peace.

Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)

Seek the peace and prosperity of the city where you’re living.

26. Psalm 39:12 – I Am a Stranger With You

Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry; be not silent at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, like all my fathers.

Darby Translation (DARBY)

David said he was a foreigner and stranger like all his ancestors.

27. Acts 17:26 – He Determined Times and Places

Of o blood he made al the kynde of men for to enhabite on al the face of the erthe: determenynge tymes beforn ordeyned, and termes of the dwellynge of hem.

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

God determines the times and exact places where people should live.

28. Deuteronomy 31:12 – Assemble the People

Gather the people together: men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may heare, and that they may learne, and feare the Lord your God.

Geneva Bible (GNV)

Gather everyone including foreigners so they can learn to fear God.

29. Job 31:32 – The Stranger Did Not Lodge Outside

The straunger dyd not lodge without: but I opened my doores vnto the wayfaryng man.

Bishop’s Bible

Job opened his doors to travelers. Strangers didn’t have to sleep outside.

30. Romans 12:13 – Practice Hospitality

Distribute vnto the necessitie of the saynctes. Be redy to harboure.

Tyndale Bible

Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

31. 1 Peter 2:11 – As Aliens and Strangers

Dear brothers, you are only visitors here. Since your real home is in heaven, I beg you to keep away from the evil pleasures of this world.

The Living Bible (TLB)

You’re foreigners and strangers in this world. Your real home is heaven.

32. Philippians 3:20 – Our Citizenship Is in Heaven

But we are citizens of the heavenly realm, where our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, resides.

The Passion Translation (TPT)

Your citizenship is in heaven where Jesus lives.

33. Genesis 23:4 – I Am a Stranger

I am a foreigner—a stranger living among you. Please sell me a piece of land for a burial plot here so I can bury my dead.

The Voice Bible (VOICE)

Abraham said he was a foreigner and stranger living among them.

34. Exodus 12:49 – The Same Law

The same teachings apply to you and to any outsider living among you.

New International Reader’s Version (NIrV)

The same law applies to native-born and foreigners living among you.

35. Leviticus 24:22 – You Are to Have the Same Law

You must have the same law for outsiders as you have for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.

God’s Word Translation (GWT)

Have the same law for foreigners and citizens. God doesn’t show favoritism.

Our Thoughts On What the Bible Says About New Immigrant Families

Scripture repeatedly commands God’s people to treat immigrants well because Israel spent 400 years as immigrants in Egypt.

They knew firsthand the isolation, exploitation, and vulnerability that comes from being foreigners in someone else’s land.

God doesn’t view immigration as a political issue to debate.

He views it as a human reality that reveals whether His people will show compassion to vulnerable populations or exploit them for economic advantage.

Christians who’ve never left their home countries often lack empathy for the daily challenges immigrant families face.

Language barriers, cultural disorientation, credential transfers, housing discrimination, and family separation aren’t abstract concepts.

They’re daily realities for millions.

God sees every struggle you’re facing. He hasn’t forgotten you in this transition. He’s walking with you through every difficult adjustment and providing in ways you don’t always recognize immediately.

Keep trusting. Keep working. Keep seeking Him. Your current struggle is temporary. His faithfulness toward you is permanent.

Say This Prayer

Father, this transition is harder than I expected. I left everything familiar hoping for better opportunities, but some days I wonder if I made the right decision.

Give me strength to keep going when I’m exhausted from navigating systems I don’t understand. Provide work that uses my skills and supports my family both here and back home.

I declare You see my struggle. You haven’t abandoned me in this new country. You go before me to prepare the way. You provide everything I need.

Help me build community here. Connect me with people who will help me adjust. Give me favor with employers, landlords, and officials. Make this transition successful for Your glory.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.