“We’re with the Church”: Religion and Humanitarian Aid along the U.S.-Mexico Border
“We’re with the Church”: Religion and Humanitarian Aid along the U.S.-Mexico Border is based on personal experience volunteering in the service of migrants and refugees in southern Arizona and Texas. It focuses on the people who provide humanitarian aid and investigates the role religion plays in that work. The research for this project primarily draws on the author’s time spent at the border between 2019 and 2023, as well as interviews with fellow volunteers who self-identify as religious or otherwise. Told through an intertwining of academic and creative nonfiction writing, this project explores some of the complex relational dynamics present in the border region. In particular, it analyzes the ways religion functions as a moral and legal force in support of aid work, centering the personal experiences of providing aid.