Ettore Gotti Tedeschi argues in La Verità that the thesis of immigration as a “necessary” phenomenon has become a political, economic, and religious dogma that is difficult to question. In an article published on July 4, 2026, the economist denounces that this narrative has been promoted for decades by international organizations and by ecclesial sectors that, in his view, have replaced prudential judgment with a kind of indiscriminate moral obligation.
The author rejects the idea that the massive arrival of immigrants can be presented as an automatic solution to Europe’s demographic winter. According to Gotti Tedeschi, the economic argument—“we need immigrants to pay pensions”—rests on questionable figures: many immigrants have precarious jobs, low wages, and limited tax contributions, while the real problem would be the decline in birth rates and Europe’s refusal to support its own families.
The article also criticizes the religious drift of the migration discourse. Gotti Tedeschi accuses certain Catholic circles of having turned hospitality into an almost absolute category, forgetting the distinction between charity, political prudence, the common good, and the real capacity for integration. He cites, to the contrary, Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, who advocate for selective reception compatible with the cultural and religious identity of nations.gottipm
The underlying thesis is clear: for Gotti Tedeschi, the myth of “necessary” migrants does not respond solely to humanitarian or economic reasons, but to a broader project of cultural and religious transformation of the West, in which immigration is presented as an instrument of syncretism and the weakening of historic European Christianity.