Little Italy

Over the weekend Premier Berlusconi has upped the ante with regards to immigration. Election fever (EP as well as regional) sometimes also means being in touch with the louder side of the population. In declaring that he does not want a “multi-ethnic” Italy Berlusconi won plaudits from his allies and attracted criticism from the UN and the Vatican.

Silvio will not heed this criticism. He would rather ignore it and attempt to quell the rising tide of the “dangerous demographics” [1]. It is hard to find fault in his reasoning. In electoral terms it is clear that both in Italy and Malta being seen to be active in the Immigration Department is a bonus for the government. Being seen as a standard bearer of a nationality that is under some extreme threat of extinction can win further brownie points. So before the pizza turns into a hummus and the bistecca fiorentina turns into some form of “meshui” (that’s “mixwi” for us), Berlusconi prefers turning a shade of Green (of the Padano kind) and has suddenly found a way to send the boatloads of immigrants back into the welcoming arms of Ghaddafi.

Berlusconi’s partners (and friends) in Little Italy can only applaud this feat. After all they too have a mass of voters egging them to prevent the nasty men from forming houses of worship within their own precincts. They too answer to voters who are disgusted when they see a manifestation of a devout person in a public place. They too can count among their voters people who believe that it’s ok if one man clad in white  gets off a plane and immediately is down on his knees in prayer but if a group of others do so regularly on the seafront.

There could be an argument in favour of the fact that that when it is clear that these are no refugeees but seekers of fortune, in lieu of hosting thousands of immigrants in unhospitable places it is probably better to return the boatsloads back to sender. In the short term this is a workable solution. That is until we (read the EU) discover ways to solve the problems that force them onto the boats in the first place.

What worries me is that behind this fight against “multi-ethnicity” is the complete eradication of the possibility of “integration”. The fine line that is being crossed here is one that is often pushed to its limits with questionable arguments by extremists. In Little Italy we currently have the problem of catholics not tolerating muslims having their own place of worship. Although the false acrobatics could lead to a link with the boatloads of immigrants, the two problems are not directly related.

The question of whether there should or could be more mosques in Malta has nothing to do with immigrants and a lot to do with whether this is a state with lay values based on the dignity and rights of man or a state based and inspired by intolerant “religious” values. If the latter is the case then keeping out boatload after boatload of immigrants with a little help from our big “friends” will not solve our problem of identity.

The big step and big choice we have to make is our own. Whether we think as Maltese Catholics, Maltese Muslims or Maltese Lay Persons we still seem to not have a clear picture about which kind of society we want to live in.

And our knee-jerk, vote-hunting politicians are not helping to find an answer. 

[1] Links provided to articles by Claire Bonello and Mark A. Falzon in the Sunday Times. Due to Sunday Times archiving policy the links might not be available in the future.