- guardian.co.uk, Monday December 25 2000 11.02 GMT
Dr Carey drew the parallel as he delivered his Christmas Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral.
He told worshippers that the nativity was an enduring example of the problems encountered by people as they arrived in an unwelcoming place, often because their hosts were fearful.
Dr Carey said: "It is a familiar story repeated over and over again in history.
"When people are afraid, generosity is in short supply."
But the archbishop also reserved special praise for those who have managed to retain a friendly welcome for desperate asylum seekers arriving in the UK.
He said: "As hundreds of asylum-seekers pour through Dover weekly, local people find it difficult to reconcile the duty of hospitality, which has been so characteristic of our nation for many years, with the prospect of finite resources being over-burdened by the sheer numbers of new arrivals.
"It is to the credit of the people of the ports of east Kent that resentment has not totally blocked the spirit of human kindness and hospitality."
The remainder of his sermon concentrated on the conflict between human nature in wanting to help strangers versus the power of the "not-in-my-backyard" culture.
Related special reports
Christmas 2000
Religion in the UK
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Oxfam - asylum seekers
