Vatican City (AsiaNews) – In remembering today's 'World Day of Migrants and Refugees', which every church is celebrating, Pope John Paul II said the phenomenon of migration requires "sympathy" and "understanding among different cultures".

Whether for economic or political reasons, migration has become part of our globalised world.

According to the Pontifical Council of Migrants, some 200 million have left their homeland to work and live elsewhere. In Asia alone, the number is 48 million, 15 million of which are legal migrants and the rest refugees and illegal migrants.

Last May, at the end of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council, John Paul II urged everyone to do their utmost to help migrants integrate in their new countries irrespective of their culture or religion. Too often Christian migrants are denied rights in Middle Eastern countries whilst, in the West, relations with Muslim migrants are difficult because of their marginalised status vis-à-vis the dominant culture or the self-assertion of their traditional culture against that of the host culture.

The Pontiff said that "integration among people requires the "right balance between asserting one's identity and acknowledging that of others".

John Paul II also spoke about the 'Week of Prayer for Christian Unity', which begins this week, and about tomorrow's important Day of Jewish- Christian dialogue.

The latter remains important given the fact that only in the last few days a new controversy has emerged over Pope Pius XII' relationship to the Jews during the Second World War.

Here are the Pope's remarks before the Angelus:

"Today the Church celebrates the 'World Day of Migrants and Refugees'. In this message I want to stress the importance that integration among people requires the right balance between asserting one's identity and acknowledging that of others.

"I extend cordial greetings to all migrants and express the wish that through dialogue sympathy and understanding among cultures may grow.

"Tomorrow's Day of Jewish-Christian Dialogue will be followed on January 18 by the annual 'Week of Prayer for Christian Unity' whose theme this year is Christ, the one foundation of the Church (cf 1 Cor 3, 1-23).

"I urge every community to take meaningful steps to meet others in ecumenical dialogue and appeal to God to grant us the gift of full unity among Christ's disciples.

"We entrust these important ecclesiastical events to the Holiest Mary. May her maternal intercession help Christians achieve a single heart and soul (cf Acts 4: 32) and may it help all men and women to grow in solidarity so that they may build a world of peace."