In his annual message Monday for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis said migrants represent “emblems of exclusion.”
“Economically advanced societies” are producing a “globalization of indifference,” the Pope said. “Migrants, refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking have become emblems of exclusion. In addition to the hardships that their condition entails, they are often looked down upon and considered the source of all society’s ills.”
Our fear of “the other, the unknown, the marginalized, the foreigner,” conditions us “to the point of making us intolerant, closed and perhaps even – without realizing it – racist,” he added.