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".
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