Former President urges caution on multi-ethnicity

President Emeritus Guido de Marco yesterday urged caution in the promotion of a multi-ethnic state in Europe.

Delivering a keynote speech during the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), being held in Malta, Prof. de Marco said European states still had to evolve into multi-ethnicity and they should not rush.

However, they should not be afraid of advancing multi-culturally.

Prof. de Marco said that one should allow oneself to be influenced by other cultures without losing the ethnicity of one's culture, which was multi-faceted.

Malta, for example, understood the Arab world, the problems Arabs went through, their issues - it was close to the Arab states even linguistically.

And as part of Europe, it also belonged to the Latin south. Moreover, through the presence of the British, the country had also acquired English as another language.

Nation states of Europe, he said, were born as a result of centuries. The multi-ethnic approach was a novel approach in Europe where peoples were linked by history, literature, a language and common concerns. Knights of Malta who came from Italy, for example, felt they were Italians even though, at the time, Italy did not exist as such and they came from different principalities. But they shared a common language.

The creation of the European Union had been about states keeping their sovereignty. States shared a common culture and the movement of peoples from one country to another was one of the achievements of the Treaty of Rome.

However, there was no extensive movement even though the different states shared the same culture and, more often than not, religion.

On the other hand Europe was receiving people who were not from Europe, most of whom were entering countries illegally.

Berlin, for example, had become the third largest Turkish city in the world.

When there was strong migration, Prof. de Marco warned, one had to ensure integration and that migrants did not become part of a ghetto. One had to ensure that the migrants learned to live like the locals, integrating in society, while still embracing their culture and identity. A balance had to be achieved.

Illegal migration created problems. How were the migrants going to live? By illicit means? Doing menial jobs? Rather than creating multi-ethnic states, Europe, he said, should deal with multi-ethnic cities.

Speaker Anton Tabone said in his opening speech he believed the international community should proceed from multi-culturalism to inter-culturalism. 

Immigration, integration and cross-cultural dialogue were closely interlinked with the common denominator in all being "people".   

He described illegal migration as a grave social problem in the making.

"While countries of origin will eventually experience a brain drain and a shortage of human labour that is absolutely necessary for their own growth and development, countries of transit and those of destination are going through great pains to provide assistance to such a constant flow of immigrants."

Concrete and effective action, he said, was urgently needed to put solidarity into practice.

"The international community just cannot stand by and let things take their own course. Illegal immigration has become a great threat to the international legal order. The rights of genuine refugees and persons deserving humanitarian status are being prejudiced by human traffickers. Thus there is an absolute need for effective action by governments and international organisations against illegal immigration, strengthening in the process the protection of genuine refugee populations."

Mr Tabone said this was an issue that no country, no matter its size and resources, could deal with alone. There had to be urgent dialogue and effective cooperation among the different government agencies at the national and international levels, with the objective of ensuring that migration was regular and contributed to sustainable development.   

Illegal migration to Malta was even more worrying considering its limited land area and its high population density. The country's ability to cope with a challenge of this magnitude was constrained further by a lack of human and financial resources.  

However, Malta had a long-standing commitment to assist those in need of humanitarian assistance. 

Jason Azzopardi, the head of the Maltese delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary meeting, said this was the largest ever OSCE meeting with the participation of 47 member states, four partner countries and a special guest - Libya, which was taking part for the first time.

Following EU membership, Malta, has managed to put illegal migration on the EU's agenda and together with Italy, Greece and Spain convinced the union on the need for an asylum policy.

Having the highest density in the EU and the third highest in the world with 1,200 people per square kilometre, Malta, he said, was a small country with a huge problem.

The OSCE conference, he said, had to see how it could promote integration without forgetting the charity begins at home principle.