I would like to congratulate the four ‘fair’ EU rapporteurs who spoke so convincingly at the ‘Living with Migration’ conference held at The Fortress Builders on October 30.

An aura of gloom and Malthusian sentiments pervaded during the discussion that followed because of a short-sighted consideration of the current problem.

I propose that one should take a long-sighted view of the migrant problem and consider the potential it offers. These people are voting with their feet against a system that has failed to deliver because it is built on principles good for AD600 but quite out of date today.

The advance of European civilisation, education and the internet have accentuated this divide leading to revolutions and loss of life both on land and at sea.

I strongly believe that we have to help these unfortunate people now, because in the near future there will a positive outcome to this enforced injection of peoples and that Europe stands to benefit from it.

Watching migrants’ children attending lessons with European ones, interacting and playing together, mastering language problems and avidly following the words of the teacher is a lesson in itself.

The skilled migrant workers perform excellent jobs mostly in the building trade, while the non-skilled help keep Malta and Gozo clean – both contributing to the Maltese economy.

Most important of all they learn how a democracyfunctions, the value of freedom of thought and expression,free elections and an endto dictatorships.

Following repatriation, they will practise in their respective countries the European systemof governance.

Indeed, among the migrant children there may be future heads of state and members of parliament as happened in the US and UK.