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Migrants, Sant’Egidio from Madrid: "Welcoming and integrating in order not to throw the future of Europe into the see"

September 16 2019 - MADRID, SPAIN

Daniela Pompei: "With a negative migration balance, Italy risks not to be attractive to young Italians as well as to those who call at our ports"

"Without a vision based on true figures instead of fear of the phenomenon of migration, Europe risks to throw its own future into the see," Daniela Pompei, responsible for the services of Sant'Egidio to the migrants said during her intervention at the meeting 'Peace with No borders' in Madrid. In Italy, an ageing population and the decline of births have reached worrisome levels. The peninsula, moreover, risks not to be attractive anymore. More than 157 thousand Italians have left the country, but "about 23 thousand, almost 30%, consists of Italian citizens of foreign origins who no longer consider Italy to be the place of their future." The presence of young refugees "shouldn't only be seen as a problem and starts to bring a positive transformation." “It's paradoxical that the current phenomenon of migration is still being tackled by anacronistic weapons that have shown to be ineffective: walls." At the end of the Second World War there were five, and there are about 72 in 2016. However, "this is the right moment for Europe to overcome fear, to change laws and to create new ones: this is what already happened in the last three years with the opening of the Humanitarian Corridors in Italy, France, Belgium and Andorra. 2.666 persons have already arrived in Europe in a safe way, withdrawn from human traffickers and the risk of dying at see. We shouldn't be affraid to welcome people and need to invest in integration," Pompei concluded.