For many, migration is a wonderful journey to freedom; a ticket to "New Life" for people wanting to pursue educations and careers, to reunite with family members, to start anew in new land.  I have heard so many positive migration accounts.  However, for too many, migration begins in "darkness."  For some, migration journeys involve distrust, deception, and devastation.  Please consider the following examples that represent thousands of stories world-wide.  (Characters are fictional, but are representative of common migration cases).

Pedro works in Los Angeles, California as a dishwasher for a small restaurant.  His wages are $3.00/hour.  Despite this, he does not complain, because he has no work permit!  He represents thousands of illegal workers.  The fact of the matter is if all illegal workers leave California on the same day, the entire state would surely have a labour melt-down.  By the way, Pedro attends an evangelical church, but even his pastor does not know his address.  He does not trust anybody, not even his relatives.

Maria is from the Philippines.  A labour-recruitment agency recruited her from Cebu City to work as an English teacher in Japan.  According to her, upon arrival, her employer met her at the Narita International Airport.  Two days later she was told that the school had closed!  She could not believe the news.  Her "boss" took her passport and within 24 hours she was forced to work as an "entertainer" in a "high-class" night club.  Human trafficking is alarming and appalling!  Human traffickers have long tentacles reaching into the depths of the soul.  Maria is full of shame, and has not even told her husband (left in the Philippines) of her situation.

Sonia paid a "recruiter" $10,000 to arrange her work abroad.  She ended up in Northern Italy after weeks of journey, including hiking for miles through Eastern Europe, and sailing across the Adriatic Sea in the shadows of darkness.  She was smuggled to her new workplace where she has no legal documentation or papers.  

James is a "pastor" from a far eastern country.  He was offered a scholarship to participate in a conference in America.  Indeed, he participated at the conference, but half-way through the week-long proceedings he vanished from the dormitory.  No one knew why or where he went, not even the conference hosts.  Two years later he emerged serving as an assistant pastor at a local American church.  What did he do for two years?  He delivered pizza at night and newspapers in the morning.  How did he even get his green card?

There is an island in the Persian Gulf, where rescued foreign female contract workers (from countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines) are stranded in various embassies waiting for their cases to be heard and for them to be repatriated (sent back home).  These women ran away from abusive employers and then were forced into prostitution by other foreign workers who took advantage of their situation.  They were delivered to their respective embassies bleeding and broken, some even pregnant from their abusers.  So not only were they victims of cruel local sponsors, they were victimised again by unscrupulous expatriates!