Migration beneficial to all involved, Vatican diplomat says

(March 09, 2012) The Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, has told a conference in Rome that despite its challenges, migration is ultimately beneficial to everyone involved. “In the long run migration has proven to be a benefit for both the countries of arrival and the countries of origin and, above all, for most of the migrants,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told Catholic News Agency (CNA). Archbishop Tomasi, who also represents the Holy See to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, was speaking at a conference in Rome on Thursday entitled “Building Bridges of Opportunity: Migration and Diversity” organized by the US Embassy to the Holy See. He explained how any migration process initially brings challenges, which include “tensions, difficulties because of different languages, different habits and cultures which tend to clash.” But if the native community can “overcome this first phase” they will then see how migrants “become good citizens of the new host country” and can “contribute not only their muscles and their work but their brain and their creativity to make the society a richer and more interesting type of society.” Archbishop Tomasi said a balance had to be struck between our Christian tradition of welcoming strangers and the need to keep into account the common good of the host country. However he said, “We can take in people but we cannot hurt the interest and the good of the workers in the country where people are trying to arrive.” “The bottom line,” he said “is that migration is good for everybody” but “we need to educate ourselves to overcome the difficulties of the first years of impact.”