Answering a Spanish journalist on April 23, who asked about immigration during his flight back to Rome, Pope Leo XIV responded in a way that is very much aligned with the Schiller Institute’s proposal “Development Drive Means Billions of New Jobs, No Refugees, No War.”
The Pope said: “The issue of migration is very complex and affects many countries, not only Spain, not only Europe, not only the United States; it is a global phenomenon.
“So, my answer begins with a question: what is the Global North doing to help the Global South, or those countries where young people today cannot find a future and therefore dream of moving north? Everyone wants to go north, but often the North has no answers on how to offer them opportunities. Many suffer…. The issue of human trafficking is also part of migration.
“Personally, I believe that a State has the right to regulate its borders. I am not saying that everyone must be allowed to enter without order, sometimes creating in destination countries situations more unjust than those they left behind. But that said, I ask myself: what are we doing in richer countries to change the situation in poorer countries? Why can we not try, both through state aid and through the investments of large wealthy companies and multinationals, to change the situation in countries like those we visited on this visit?
“Africa is often seen by many as a place to extract minerals, to take its wealth for the benefit of other countries. Perhaps globally we should work more to promote greater justice, equality, and development in these African countries so that people do not need to emigrate to other countries, including Spain, and so on.
“And another point I would like to make is that, in any case, they are human beings, and we must treat human beings humanely, not treat them worse than animals, as often happens. It is a very big challenge: a country can say it cannot receive more than a certain number of people, but when people arrive, they are human beings and deserve the respect that belongs to every human being because of their dignity.”
