The 1,318 participants of the 108th World Congress of Esperanto, having come together in Turin, Italy, between 29 July and 5 August 2023, dealt with the theme of "Immigration – a confluence of human values". The participants, who travelled from 69 different countries, not only discussed the theme but also experienced it and lived it; since everyone taking part spoke the international language Esperanto, there were no language barriers to hinder them communicating with one another, meaning that, in keeping with the theme of the congress, the human values of all the attendees flowed together in an atmosphere of harmony.

Many Esperantists talked about their own experiences as migrants. They emphasised that knowing the Esperanto language does indeed help with receiving support at the start of one's new life, but it is essential to learn the national language of the country in question, so as to be able to integrate into that society.

The same is true for all migrants – whether they chose to move to another country of their own free will, or whether they had to flee from their homeland due to war, poverty or persecution.

Accordingly, the Congress participants took note of the following:

1. Civil society in the host city of Turin presents a model example for the social integration of migrants and particularly refugees.
2. Members of the Congress note with worry that the number of refugees in the world exceeded the figure of 100 million in the past year. We warn that, due to climate change, more and more people will be obliged to leave their homes.
3. We call on all the world's states to bring an end to the causes of involuntary migration, and we support the efforts of the United Nations and other intergovernmental organisations to alleviate, if not to solve, the problems.
4. We appeal to those states where refugees come to welcome them and give them every support so that they can establish an independent, free life.
5. We appeal to all states to guarantee that migrants can live without linguistic discrimination and without any other discrimination - in other words, we appeal to all states to follow the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed in the year 1948.
6. Now, in the year of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights, we note with worry that those rights are not respected in many parts of the world.
7. For this reason we are in solidarity with refugees and we emphasise that human rights are universal rights which apply for every individual across the world, including migrants.

Turin, Italy, 5 August 2023

(Elesperantigis Gabriel Beecham)