It had to happen but people kept their fingers crossed, hoping it will not happen. Headings in local newspapers saying that the Italian navy rescued over 800 people and, a couple of days later, that it rescued 2,500 people did not cause a big stir locally, though they pointed towards the ever-increasing number of people trying to cross to Europe. The numbers, partly inflated by the Syrian crisis, rose from about 3,000 during January-May last year to around 25,000 in the same period in 2014.
However, when the headlines announced that the Maltese army was monitoring 25 boats and, soon after, that 130 migrants were brought to Maltese shores, the floodgates of Facebook and of the online news portals were thrown wide open, letting in a deluge of mainly negative comments peppered with a good number of hysterical ones.
I read dozens of these comments in an attempt to better understand the feelings of the writers and the rationale behind their mostly negative comments. Such reading makes it very clear that it would be a mistake to bundle these people into a monolithic constituency. They definitely don’t.
The comments are undoubtedly underpinned by a lot of fear and quite a high level of lack of correct information about the issues involved. There is also a deeply felt need for an urgent solution but since this is continuously dodging everyone, people start firing all sorts of unrealisable pseudo solutions, illegal pushbacks being the most frequently mentioned one.
High on the agenda of those who post comments is the belief that Malta is being invaded. The fending off of the invasion is a patriotic duty and not a sign of racism. “This is not an issue of racism or xenophobia; this is a case of Malta being invaded.” The threat goes beyond our shores. “Europe is under attack from many and all fronts. Yet, most Europeans are blissfully unaware.”
Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, is the villain par excellence. Most phrases written about her can’t be reproduced in this newspaper.
While Europe is looked at as the potential victim of the invasion, the EU is marked as the bogeyman guilty, at the very best, of lulling everyone into inaction.
“And it looks like everyone is too scared of the EU to do anything about it.” At worst, the EU is the instigator of the ‘chaos’. “The EU is using illegal immigration from the African continent as a weapon to wipe out all traces of civilisation. Moreover, it is doing this efficiently and fast!”
Besides the conspiracy theory that there is a “plan is to destroy European civilisation and each country’s national character and culture”, there is another conspiracy theory in currency.
This is “all part of the plan; Christianity is in the last throes of death.” This plan against Christianity is then counter-blasted by the belief that the Church is complicit as it takes a stand against racism and asks for compassion towards immigrants.
The appellatives of ‘pigs’ and ‘f***ers’ were reserved for the signatories of the recent statement by leaders of a number of Maltese Church commissions showing concern at the increase in votes by the far right in the European Parliament elections.
Multiculturalism is looked at as a deadly danger and not as a possibility. Someone wrote in sarcastic terms: “Thank you Europe for all this multiculturalism; I love learning of different cultures. I can’t wait for these highly cultured people [from sub-Saharan Africa] to percolate into our society so that we learn from them.”
Then there also are those motivated by pure hate and blatant racism. In their comments, for example, they express the hope that strong winds and stormy seas will solve the problem for us. Their crassness is incredible. These, I believe are the minority; a most worrying and extremely despicable one, but a minority just the same. Their obnoxiousness tempts one to ask whether they are human or belong to some resurrected primeval sub-species.
Most of the Maltese do not harbour such hate in their hearts. The majority of comments can be attributed to deep-seated and genuine fear. One cannot reconcile racist hate with the generosity so many Maltese show during the many fundraising telethons, but one can reconcile that generosity with irrational fear. Many do not want to have what they consider as an alien culture forcefully foisted on them. This fear gives rise to what I prefer to describe as a kind of potential racism to distinguish it from racism by those who spout out hate.
The writing skills of many contributors to the social networks are often grammatically challenged. But it would be a mistake to conclude that fear and a lack of information are limited to those who have primary education and low-level jobs. This fear, which can develop into a form of racism, spreads to the more educated and those in highly-placed jobs. The more educated, however, keep back from expressing these comments on social networks, preferring to share them with their in-groups during social occasions.
Multiculturalism is looked at as a deadly danger and not as a possibility
Those who try to group in one basket all people criticising irregular migrants or who simply pooh-pooh their fears are not helping towards a solution. Acknowledging that irregular migration is a big problem is a step towards the solution. Inter-ethnic dialogue and education can also go a long way.
The media, who have to a point nurtured this fear and created a moral panic, have an important role to play. The broadcasting, for example, by PBS, of CCTV footage of a supermarket brawl involving coloured non-Maltese with locals serves neither good journalism nor the status of a national broadcaster. It only fuels xenophobic tendencies.
The long-term solution – which is very difficult – is political. One realistically notes that, for example, the European Council is made up of heads of government whose citizens have the same fears, anxieties, lack of knowledge and xenophobic tendencies. Moreover, unlike the Maltese government, they paid heavily in recent polls.
Solidarity is an applauded concept but its translation into concrete political action turns to be difficult when faced by self-serving interests. The frustration of the common folk is probably shared by their leaders when faced with a problem which repeatedly eludes solutions.
Perhaps, after all, the real long-term solution is neither socio-cultural nor political. It lies in the realisation that we still have not assimilated the basic truth enunciated by Roman poet Terence hundreds of years ago: “Nothing human is alien to me.”
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt