ROME — Pope Francis urged Westerners to be more open to immigration Thursday, insisting that it is a necessary antidote to the West’s “demographic winter.”
In forgetting how to welcome migrants, the West lost much, because it “needs people,” the pontiff told reporters during his return flight from Kazakhstan to Rome. Especially considering the “demographic winter,” which is so evident in Spain and Italy.
“In Italy there are empty villages with just twenty old ladies and nothing else,” he said.
“Why can’t we make a policy in the West where immigrants are included with the principle that the migrant should be welcomed, accompanied, promoted, and integrated?” he asked. Because otherwise, “everything is left empty.”
File/Pope Francis poses with a group of refugees on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. Pope Francis has invited a dozen refugees to join him for his general audience to press his demand for Europe to welcome more migrants. The banner reads “The refugees for a future together” (AP Photo/Fabio Frustaci)
The pope went on to insist that the West itself is composed of former migrants, including his homeland of Argentina.
“In my country – which I think is 49 million right now – we only have a little less than a million indigenous people, and everybody else is of migrant roots,” he declared. “Everybody: Spaniards, Italians, Germans, Polish Slavs, from Asia Minor, Lebanese, everybody… It’s mixed blood there, and this experience has helped us so much.”
“It’s true that things aren’t going too well in Latin American countries for political reasons,” he said, “but I think migration should be taken seriously, because it raises the intellectual and cordial value of the West somewhat.”
“On the contrary, with this demographic winter, where are we going?” he asked. “The West is declining on this point; it is losing ground.”
“I think we Westerners are not at our best to help other people,” he said. “Are we a little decadent? Maybe, yes, but we have to take back the values, the values of Europe, the values of the founding fathers who founded the European Union, the great ones.”
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