Feedback — thematic codebook for study on migration in the Gospel

[halconero]

Hi all,

I few weeks ago I mentioned putting together a study on migration and its various components (economic migration, refugees, family reunification, citizenship, residency, etc.) as discussed in scripture, talks, discourses, and other resources.

As part of my formalizing this, I'm putting together a personal codebook to organize references thematically. This is a common approach quantitative sciences (where it's often called a dictionary) or the more rigourous qualitative sciences. Ideally, themes and codes should be decided upon and organized before conducting the study.

The null hypothesis of this study is that the Gospel does not provide a reliable framework for immigration policy. The alternative hypothesis is that the Gospel provides reliable framework in favour of a mostly open immigration policy. I tried to avoid normative terms such as "liberal" or "nationalist" immigration policy. Instead, I use an artificial scale of -2 to 2, where -2 represents mass expulsion of non-citizens or non-residents. 2 represents an open immigration policy where entry into the country, amnesty, and residency are easy and readily available. 0 refers to a somewhat restrictionist policy where immigration is neither easy nor hard, and people within the country are not granted legal status, but are also not removed to any great degree. -1/1 are in-betweens.

The themes for this study are:

• International travel - coded as '1' - defined as "Sources describe travel across national boundaries by any person or population, temporary or permanent, whether righteous or wicked."
• Borders (2) - Geographic delineations between national or subnational states or other government types
• Citizenship (3) - Indicates the status of individuals in relation to the state, typically around political, civil, and social rights. Citizenship is typically not time delimited. It may be gained upon birth or through some sort of naturalization process.
• Residency (4) - Distinct from citizenship, indicates people with the right to live in a territory wihout full political, civil, or social rights. It may come with some rights to work and gauarantees of protection. It may or may not be time delimited.
• Asylum (5) - Refers to states providing protection to individuals or peoples on the basis of the latter's persecution or fear of death due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Alternatively, a similar fear based on general conditions back in their home country (e.g., war, breakdown of government, etc.). The person or people must have sought said protection at or within the other state's borders.
• Resettlement (6) - The process whereby a government purposefully recognizes a person or peoples' need of protection while said people are still outside or away from their borders, and organizes their transfer to within the state and provide for their need. Typically includes some sort of permanent residency with a pathway to citizenship.
• Economic migration (7) - Entails the movement from one state to another on the basis of economic opportunity in the arrival state or economic depravity in the home state.
• Governance (8) - The system of processes, functions, rules, laws, norms, and relationships whereby governments act in a way seen a legitimate to the populations within their borders. Examples may include constitutional laws or conventions, parliamentary processes, checks & balances, and distribution of power horizontally (e.g., between branches of the same government) or vertically (federal relationships).
• Border security (9) - Material or personal enforcement of geographic boundaries. May include walls, patrols, surveillance, or even rules determining types of entry or actions deemed lawful there.
• Nationality (10) - Identity, usually geographically based, with political, cultural, religious, or social meaning.

The sources are:

• The Old Testament (1)
• The New Testament (2)
• The Book of Mormon (3)
• The Doctrine and Covenants (4)
• The Pearl of Great Price (5)
• Church magazines (Ensign/Liahona, Friend, etc.) (6)
• General Conference talks (7)
• Other talks (BYU devotionals, worldwide firesides, etc.) (8)
• Joseph Smith Papers (9)
• Journal of Discourses (10)

Are there any themes or sources missing here? Can the hypotheses be defined better? Do the themes themselves need better definition?

[Robert F. Smith]

One topic of interest should be the unwritten policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, past and present on borders and migration.  There have been instances, for example, in which a Latter-day Saint missionary from the USA, who is not a U.S. citizen, goes on his mission and cannot get back into the USA.  Not sure how such problems were resolved, but I have known members living in Utah who are non-citizens who fear being deported at any moment.

[CV75]

4 hours ago, halconero said:

Hi all,

I few weeks ago I mentioned putting together a study on migration and its various components (economic migration, refugees, family reunification, citizenship, residency, etc.) as discussed in scripture, talks, discourses, and other resources.

As part of my formalizing this, I'm putting together a personal codebook to organize references thematically. This is a common approach quantitative sciences (where it's often called a dictionary) or the more rigourous qualitative sciences. Ideally, themes and codes should be decided upon and organized before conducting the study.

The null hypothesis of this study is that the Gospel does not provide a reliable framework for immigration policy. The alternative hypothesis is that the Gospel provides reliable framework in favour of a mostly open immigration policy. I tried to avoid normative terms such as "liberal" or "nationalist" immigration policy. Instead, I use an artificial scale of -2 to 2, where -2 represents mass expulsion of non-citizens or non-residents. 2 represents an open immigration policy where entry into the country, amnesty, and residency are easy and readily available. 0 refers to a somewhat restrictionist policy where immigration is neither easy nor hard, and people within the country are not granted legal status, but are also not removed to any great degree. -1/1 are in-betweens.

The themes for this study are:

• International travel - coded as '1' - defined as "Sources describe travel across national boundaries by any person or population, temporary or permanent, whether righteous or wicked."
• Borders (2) - Geographic delineations between national or subnational states or other government types
• Citizenship (3) - Indicates the status of individuals in relation to the state, typically around political, civil, and social rights. Citizenship is typically not time delimited. It may be gained upon birth or through some sort of naturalization process.
• Residency (4) - Distinct from citizenship, indicates people with the right to live in a territory wihout full political, civil, or social rights. It may come with some rights to work and gauarantees of protection. It may or may not be time delimited.
• Asylum (5) - Refers to states providing protection to individuals or peoples on the basis of the latter's persecution or fear of death due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Alternatively, a similar fear based on general conditions back in their home country (e.g., war, breakdown of government, etc.). The person or people must have sought said protection at or within the other state's borders.
• Resettlement (6) - The process whereby a government purposefully recognizes a person or peoples' need of protection while said people are still outside or away from their borders, and organizes their transfer to within the state and provide for their need. Typically includes some sort of permanent residency with a pathway to citizenship.
• Economic migration (7) - Entails the movement from one state to another on the basis of economic opportunity in the arrival state or economic depravity in the home state.
• Governance (8) - The system of processes, functions, rules, laws, norms, and relationships whereby governments act in a way seen a legitimate to the populations within their borders. Examples may include constitutional laws or conventions, parliamentary processes, checks & balances, and distribution of power horizontally (e.g., between branches of the same government) or vertically (federal relationships).
• Border security (9) - Material or personal enforcement of geographic boundaries. May include walls, patrols, surveillance, or even rules determining types of entry or actions deemed lawful there.
• Nationality (10) - Identity, usually geographically based, with political, cultural, religious, or social meaning.

The sources are:

• The Old Testament (1)
• The New Testament (2)
• The Book of Mormon (3)
• The Doctrine and Covenants (4)
• The Pearl of Great Price (5)
• Church magazines (Ensign/Liahona, Friend, etc.) (6)
• General Conference talks (7)
• Other talks (BYU devotionals, worldwide firesides, etc.) (8)
• Joseph Smith Papers (9)
• Journal of Discourses (10)

Are there any themes or sources missing here? Can the hypotheses be defined better? Do the themes themselves need better definition?

Related to another thread on MFT, I think "the Gospel does not provide a reliable framework for immigration policy" because while it works with every moral foundation profile, it only works on a policy level when people seek to understand and respect each other (on a MFT basis) in love -- a tall order!

The Gospel might be a subset of the  Governance theme though, since policy is the net of all participants' morally-driven "processes, functions, rules, laws, norms, and relationships," and the Gospel (as with all religions, secular, natural/nontheistic and theistic; the Gospel encompasses all good things anyway!) has a role in that.

[Dario_M]

7 hours ago, halconero said:

 

• The Old Testament (1)
• The New Testament (2)
• The Book of Mormon (3)
• The Doctrine and Covenants (4)
• The Pearl of Great Price (5)
• Church magazines (Ensign/Liahona, Friend, etc.) (6)
• General Conference talks (7)
• Other talks (BYU devotionals, worldwide firesides, etc.) (8)
• Joseph Smith Papers (9)
• Journal of Discourses (10)

Are there any themes or sources missing here? Can the hypotheses be defined better? Do the themes themselves need better definition?

I think you got them pretty much all up there. No need for better definition then this i think. 

[halconero]

On 1/13/2025 at 5:42 PM, CV75 said:

Related to another thread on MFT, I think "the Gospel does not provide a reliable framework for immigration policy" because while it works with every moral foundation profile, it only works on a policy level when people seek to understand and respect each other (on a MFT basis) in love -- a tall order!

Thanks for this. To be clear, I'm using 'reliable' in a stricter sense. Reliability defines the extent to which the same person can apply the same framework at different times, and produce similar results or come to similar conclusions; or, the extent to which two different people can apply the same framework and come to similar conclusions. Put more succinctly, can two disciples of Christ apply the Gospel in the exact same way or pattern, and come to similar conclusions around issues of immigration?

Also, the null hypothesis operates on falsification as a premise - meaning, my goal here is to go out and disprove my real hunch, which is that the Gospel does indeed provide a reliable framework through which we can understand trends and make decisions regarding them. However, in all fairness to myself and to others, I should be just as open to the possibility that my hunch is wrong - hence, the null hypothesis.

On 1/13/2025 at 5:42 PM, CV75 said:

The Gospel might be a subset of the  Governance theme though, since policy is the net of all participants' morally-driven "processes, functions, rules, laws, norms, and relationships," and the Gospel (as with all religions, secular, natural/nontheistic and theistic; the Gospel encompasses all good things anyway!) has a role in that.

Indeed. Thank you!

[halconero]

On 1/13/2025 at 5:31 PM, Robert F. Smith said:

One topic of interest should be the unwritten policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, past and present on borders and migration.  There have been instances, for example, in which a Latter-day Saint missionary from the USA, who is not a U.S. citizen, goes on his mission and cannot get back into the USA.  Not sure how such problems were resolved, but I have known members living in Utah who are non-citizens who fear being deported at any moment.

I hadn't thought of that theme/topic, but it's an excellent suggestion. I worry there's not too much publicly available documentation here, but will add it anyways and look around.

Anecdotally, I've witnessed something similar. There were three missionaries in my mission in Arizona who didn't have legal status in the United States. They were all from Tucson, skipped the MTC, and were driven directly to the mission home by their bishops.

[CV75]

6 hours ago, halconero said:

Thanks for this. To be clear, I'm using 'reliable' in a stricter sense. Reliability defines the extent to which the same person can apply the same framework at different times, and produce similar results or come to similar conclusions; or, the extent to which two different people can apply the same framework and come to similar conclusions. Put more succinctly, can two disciples of Christ apply the Gospel in the exact same way or pattern, and come to similar conclusions around issues of immigration?

Also, the null hypothesis operates on falsification as a premise - meaning, my goal here is to go out and disprove my real hunch, which is that the Gospel does indeed provide a reliable framework through which we can understand trends and make decisions regarding them. However, in all fairness to myself and to others, I should be just as open to the possibility that my hunch is wrong - hence, the null hypothesis.

Indeed. Thank you!

I’m thinking that this stricter sense would require a strict definition of the coupled Gospel principle and impacted immigration issue, and more ideally, if possible, the shared or mutual experience with the coupling. Since people define and experience the Gospel so differently (as they do the scriptures and government constitutions), how would this be accomplished? It seems easier to define the issue (though not universally, otherwise it would not be an issue!), but this would require a good deal of compromise and agreement.

I believe the Gospel can resolve any problem, but we are assured that resolution might have to wait until the next life. Perhaps the process of gathering people into oneness would address immigration issues, but this makes the Gospel the method (covenants, gathering, councils, spiritual gifts and power) of resolving issues, not the specific principles for resolving specific issues. This method is how I see two like-minded disciples of Christ applying the Gospel in the exact same (or close enough) way or pattern, and come to similar conclusions around issues of immigration.

[CV75]

6 hours ago, halconero said:

I hadn't thought of that theme/topic, but it's an excellent suggestion. I worry there's not too much publicly available documentation here, but will add it anyways and look around.

Anecdotally, I've witnessed something similar. There were three missionaries in my mission in Arizona who didn't have legal status in the United States. They were all from Tucson, skipped the MTC, and were driven directly to the mission home by their bishops.

This shows the difference between (Gospel-) inspired policy and (Gospel-)inspired expediency, which may call for an exception to policy and multiple (possibly conflicting) ways of resolving individual cases of the same issue. The Gospel record is full of exceptions and even transgressions which are requisite for the Lord's work and glory to come to fulfilment.

Edited January 17, 2025 by CV75