Mexicans shower the caravan with kindness — and tarps, tortillas and medicine

In 2016 an influx of Haitian immigrants start migrating to Chile. In Coihueco, a small rural town in Chile, they are met with open arms. Towns people organize to find them shelter, raise funds so they can bring over their families, and coalesce to make the town welcoming and supportive. In contrast a slew of racists incidents plague the capital, and the Chilean government changes their immigration laws, making it difficult for Haitian immigrants to settle in the country.

In Philadelphia immigrants are driving population growth in the Northeast region of the city, in neighborhoods traditionally occupied by mostly white, Irish-Catholic, senior citizens. The “number of immigrants increased from 26,942 in 2000 to 48,623 in 2015, a leap of 80 percent.” However, city leaders, nonprofits, and schools are pulling in resources to help the growing immigrant population, many of whom are refugees.

In order to combat xenophobic attitudes against refugees in Europe, three friends founded Solomon; a media outlet that “gives voice to non-native populations, countering negative stereotypes about them and helping them integrate into their new communities.” Recent grants have helped the magazine expand and pay staff. “We’re not like other media that focuses on refugees’ selling their bodies or selling drugs. We go with our camera and write about integration.”

Tens of thousands of readers read Amal, Berlin!, "an Arabic, Farsi and German-language digital newspaper that covers local news in Berlin and Germany.” The newspaper helps refugees navigate their new home in their native language, easing their transition into a new culture and way of life.

Five years after Germany sparked controversy with a welcoming message to the flood of refugees applying for asylum, more than half of those 1.7 million refugees have work and pay taxes, their youth show strong signs of belonging to their German communities, and more than 10,000 have mastered the language enough to enroll in German universities. Refuting anti-immigrant skeptics meant overcoming, or enduring, enormous social and economic challenges. Despite many bumps, the policy now appears to have avoided the nightmare scenarios foreseen by critics, such as inviting even more refugees.

Carmen Carcelen lives in northern Ecuador with her husband, eight children, and hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who are fleeing poverty, violence, and hyperinflation at home. Carcelen has been providing food and shelter (and even foot rubs) to over 8,500 migrants for two years now. Carcelen says that she is spurred to action by her Christian faith, but welcomes any donations because it is currently financed on her husband's small income.

The Kino Border Initiative is a volunteer binational organization that provides food, aid, and shelter for migrants crossing the border between Mexico and Arizona. The rate of asylum-seekers is steadily rising, and this organization makes sure that they have a safe place to live while they wait for their day in court. Every day up to 60 volunteers conduct services that range from preparing meals to translating Indigenous languages.

For migrant detainees in San Diego County's Otay Mesa Detention Center, a recent letter writing campaign from participants at nearby San Diego State University has brought a small form of hope and courage. The university library released hundreds of letters between detainees and university participants, which served to humanize the immigration debate. “In the U.S. our tendency is to really dehumanize migrants,” said Kate Swanson, another geography professor at San Diego State. “We put them in these concrete boxes. This helps them become visible.”

In Sri Lanka, tensions are rising between Sinhala Buddhist nationalists, and the small Muslim population. Islamophobic attacks have unfolded against Muslims, but most Sri Lankans not only refuse to engage with violence, some are even protecting their Muslim neighbors.

Fueled by xenophobia, many countries around the world are refusing refugees at the border. But Canadian hockey moms, poker buddies, and neighbors are personally resettling Syrians, one family at a time.