“In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants.”

—  Pope Francis

2010s, Address to the United States Congress

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, th…" by Pope Francis?
Pope Francis photo
Pope Francis 113
266th Pope of the Catholic Church 1936

Related quotes

Theodore Roosevelt photo
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood photo

“We are all immigrants to this land. It's just that some of us came earlier than others.”

Romeo LeBlanc (1927–2009) Canadian politician

Source: installation speech February 8, 1995

Francis Escudero photo

“Prior to martial law, we had only around a million Filipino immigrants to foreign countries. Today, estimates reach nine million Filipinos who have voted with their feet.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero

Donald J. Trump photo
Barbara Jordan photo

“It was immigration that taught us, it does not matter where you came from, or who your parents were. What counts is who you are.”

Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) American politician

Speaking as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Quoted by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives “Tribute to the Late Hon. Barbara Jordan,” Congressional Record (24 January 1996), as cited in Let me tell you what I've learned https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0292787901: Texas Wisewomen Speak, PJ Pierce, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 17

Carl I. Hagen photo

“The immigration must be limited, that is, first and foremost the foreign cultural one.”

Carl I. Hagen (1944) Norwegian politician

Interviewed in Aftenposten (13 November 2005) http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/politikk/article1155154.ece

Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux photo

“You hail from Dream-land, Dragon-fly?
A stranger hither? So am I,
And (sooth to say) I wonder why
We either of us came!”

Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (1857–1944) Anglo-French writer

To a Dragon-fly, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Ray Bradbury photo

“We are all of us, it has been said, the children of immigrants and foreigners — even the American Indian, although he arrived here a little earlier.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Preface
Sackett's Land (1974)
Context: We are all of us, it has been said, the children of immigrants and foreigners — even the American Indian, although he arrived here a little earlier. What a man is and what he becomes is in part due to his heritage, and the men and women who came west did not emerge suddenly from limbo. Behind them were ancestors, families, and former lives. Yet even as the domestic cattle of Europe evolved into the wild longhorns of Texas, so the American pioneer had the characteristics of a distinctive type.
Physically and psychologically, the pioneers' need for change had begun in the old countries with their decision to migrate. In most cases their decisions were personal, ordered by no one else. Even when migration was ordered or forced, the people who survived were characterized by physical strength, the capacity to endure, and not uncommonly, a rebellious nature.
History is not made only by kings and parliaments, presidents, wars, and generals. It is the story of people, of their love, honor, faith, hope and suffering; of birth and death, of hunger, thirst and cold, of loneliness and sorrow. In writing my stories I have found myself looking back again and again to origins, to find and clearly see the ancestors of the pioneers.

Related topics