We are all urged to adopt a decided stance and course of action summed up in four simple verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate, says Bishop Denis Brennan.

We need, in the words of Pope Francis, to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family – Bishop John McAreavey.

Pope Francis has focused on the theme of ‘Child Migrants, the Vulnerable and the Voiceless’ in his message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees which is marked this weekend on Sunday 15 January 2017.

"Remember you too were treated harshly abroad, building London’s underground, the mines of Yorkshire, in the docks of Boston or in the new cities of Sydney and Perth."

Some 81,900 people left Irish shores between April 2013 and April 2014 though it appears the number of people emigrating has begun to fall.

"Mental health difficulties are the unspoken injury afflicting whole swathes of the migrant community".