"The migratory phenomenon in a global world is becoming unstoppable: the problem will not be solved by closing the borders but by the countries’ receiving the migratory flows with right, well-balanced and sympathetic regulations": this was stated today by card. Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Papal Council of the Pastoral for Migrants and Wanderers, as he presented, in the Vatican newsroom, the Pope’s Message for the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees (18 January 2009). Card. Martino mentioned that over 200 million people "live outside their native country, driven out by poverty, hunger, violence, war, ethnic rivalries, as well as by a longing for a better life". But immigration, he noticed, is "often experienced by the host countries as a sort of ‘invasion’, with negative repercussions on their stability and security". "This climate of withdrawal he said makes the human predicament of many immigrants even sadder and more bitter, pushing them into illegal conditions". The Pope’s message, said card. Martino, "insists above all on the need to start from a ‘culture of friendship’": "We must he highlighted help migrants gradually fit in, respecting their cultural identity as well as the identity of the local population".
