Migrants not 'other', my family emigrated says pope

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 11 - People should not think of migrants as "the other" and different from us, Pope Francis said Thursday, telling the Fondazione Migrantes that his own father had emigrated from Italy to Argentina in 1929.
    "We often see migrants as 'other' than us, as strangers," Francis said.
    "But in fact, reading the data of the phenomenon, we discover that migrants are a significant part of us, as well as, in the case of Italian emigrants, people close to us.
    "Our families, our young students, graduates, unemployed, our businessmen.
    "Italian migration reveals an Italy 'daughter', journeying in Europe, and in the world.
    "It's a reality I feel particularly close to, in so far as my family, too, emigrated to Argentina.
    "The 'us,' therefore means mobility too".
    Francis is the eldest of the five children of Mario Bergoglio, an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro near Asti in Piedmont.
    The pope added that Europe "is our common home, and we must not deface it with hatred and prejudice". (ANSA).