There are politicians and community leaders who believe migration is an opportunity rather than a threat but they need to speak out more often, according to the head of the Jesuits' Centre for Faith and Justice.

Conscious of the difficulties illegal immigration has created to a small insular society like Malta, Fr Edgar Busuttil believes immigration is an opportunity for the country to "grow out of a post-colonial mentality" and look at diversity as an enriching experience.

"There are politicians who use the phenomenon to stoke fear, which prevents us from working for a just society, but there are others who view migration as an opportunity and they need to speak out more often," he says.

Fear can be turned into a force for good, he adds, if migration is viewed as an opportunity to enrich our community.

"Migration is a complex issue. Fear is more often than not based on partial truths and it prevents us from seeing things from a different perspective. Migration can help us reflect on our identity, enrich our community and enable us to grow up," he said.

This different perspective, based on positive thoughts, forms the basis of a book the centre will publish on Friday, bringing together a collection of speeches and lectures delivered by eminent people on the issue of migration.

The book, Opening Up - A Path Beyond Fear, proposes, in Fr Busuttil's words, a "serene reflection on a possible way forward into a world where cultures are more than ever on the move".

In his introduction, Fr Busuttil poses some pertinent questions: "Are we really experiencing a cataclysmic invasion by Africans in Malta today? Or is it rather a wake-up call to make the leap from a post-colonial mentality marked by fear and isolation towards a neo-European mentality infused by a sense of self-confidence and solidarity?"

With contributions from Cardinal Renato Martino, President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami, the founder of the Sant' Egidio community Andrea Riccardi, and the secretary for social justice at the Jesuit Curia in Rome Fr Fernando Franco, the book sheds a Christian and humanistic light on migration.

The epilogue by Mario Cardona ends with a pertinent quote from Paolo Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed: "False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the 'rejects of life', to extend their trembling hands. Real generosity lies in striving so that those hands - whether of individuals or entire peoples - need to be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, by working transform the world."

It is a quote that provides a telling characterisation of how Malta's 'big heart for charity' could mislead people into believing donating money to a worthy cause is enough to placate a nagging conscience.

Christianity talks of treating foreigners as brothers, Fr Busuttil said, which was a step forward on tolerance since it meant accepting them with their diversity.

The book will be launched at the University chapel on Friday at 6.30 p.m.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

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