“There are countries in Europe that I don't want to mention so as not to create diplomatic problems, which have small towns or villages that are almost empty . Cities that have only about twenty elderly people living there. Fallow fields. These countries are experiencing a demographic winter and have an average age of up to 46, but they do not welcome migrants. So they get older and older ».

Reception, on the other hand, could be a solution to depopulation and birth rates at historic lows.

This is the proposal of the Holy Father Jorge Bergoglio , expressed to a group of young people that the pontiff met during the filming of the documentary "Face with Pope Francis", available on Disney+ since last April 5th.

The pontiff omits the names of the nations involved, but, looking at the statistics, he seems to have in mind the three nations with the lowest birth rate in the EU, namely Malta, Spain and Italy . The average age of 46 years or more is also a clue: in Italy - Eurostat 2021 data - it is 47.6 years , the highest figure in Europe with, to follow, Germany 45.9 years and Portugal, 45.8 years.

And the average age in Sardinia is also almost 47, precisely 46.8 years (Istat) . The island, therefore, is one of the territories that best reflects the identikit traced by Pope Francis, as one of the regions most affected at European level by the phenomenon of depopulation and falling birth rates .

But Sardinia, data in hand, is also the fourth region in Italy for migrants who arrive: in 2022 there were 2,103, about 175 per month.

Migrants who, says the pontiff in the documentary, "must be welcomed, accompanied, supported and integrated" . Precisely hospitality aimed at repopulation is, according to the Holy Father, one of the paths to be taken by the EU in the face of the "problem of migrations", which, in the words of Bergoglio himself, "must be tackled seriously".

(Unioneonline/lf)

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