Strangers and Foreigners or Fellow Citizens with the Saints? How Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Have Portrayed Immigration Over Time.

Reed L. Welch, West Texas A&M University

Abstract. Although The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is considered a conservative religion and for decades its U.S. members have been among the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party, the Church’s position and rhetoric in recent years and the opinions of many of its members toward immigration clearly diverge from the Republican agenda and the opinions of other conservative religious Americans. This study seeks to better understand Latter-day Saints’ view of immigration by evaluating how leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have talked about immigration over time. To do this it examines all addresses given in the Church’s General Conferences from 1851 to 2019. It finds that Church leaders have consistently portrayed immigration and immigrants in positive terms and that the support today is in line with the tone and approach that Church leaders have exhibited in the past. Among other things, Church leaders have identified themselves as descendants of immigrants, coupled immigration with the history of the Church, emphasized the need to help immigrants, and used immigrants as examples of behavior that people should emulate. The article concludes by discussing how Church leaders have addressed immigration in recent years when members’ opinions about immigration are anything but uniform.

Welch, Reed L. 2024. “Strangers and Foreigners or Fellow Citizens with the Saints? How Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Have Portrayed Immigration Over Time,” Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association 2, no. 1: 91–108. https://doi.org/10.54587/JMSSA.0204