Likewise, European and other countries should remember how they have also experienced both immigration and emigration "the hard way."
"How difficult was it after the war for millions of Europeans who left often with the whole family and crossed the ocean to land in South America or the United States!" he said.
"It was not an easy experience even for them. They suffered the burden of being regarded as strangers, they came from far away and without any knowledge of the local language. It was not an easy integration process."
On January 1st of this year, Pope Francis formed a new Migrants and Refugees Section under the new Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. He did this, he said, because "the millions of migrants, refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking need special care."
Reflecting the strong emphasis he's placed on this issue of migration throughout his pontificate, Francis has put himself in charge of this section, "at least for a time," he said.
"The main mission of the Section is to support the Church and pastors – locally, regionally and internationally – in accompanying people at every stage of the migration process," he said.
The Pope said that he thinks especially of people fleeing conflict, persecution, natural or man-made disasters, as well as trafficked-persons and those in exploitative situations, particularly migrant workers, women, adolescents, and children.
As in the past, migrants are an "enrichment for our society," he said. "We have much to learn from the past; it is important to act with awareness, without stirring up fear of foreigners."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.