Tough talk on irregular immigration did not bring much tangible EU help on burden sharing but it may have helped to heighten worry among the Maltese.
Irregular migration has jumped ahead of other national problems to become the main concern, surging up by 34 percentage points in the past six months, according to the EU-wide Eurobarometer survey.
In May, only 29 per cent of Maltese respondents had mentioned irregular immigration as the main problem: this increased to 63 per cent in November.
Malta was the only one of the 28 member states that listed this issue as being of highest concern.
According to the 500 Maltese respondents surveyed, the other two issues mentioned, both at 19 per cent, were inflation and the economic situation.
Eurobarometer noted that “Malta continues to stand out from the other EU member states, being the only country where the most important concern is not directly related to the economy and where unemployment is not one of the three most mentioned items”.
Despite public perception, last year’s irregular immigrant arrivals totalled fewer than 2,000 people, a ‘normal’ amount.
In previous years, Malta had seen larger arrival numbers.
However, according to some observers, the subject’s increased ‘popularity’ among the Maltese is related to the government’s preoccupation with the issue, particularly the tough talk by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in the summer months.
“We had the Prime Minister stamping his feet and threatening the EU when a few hundred irregular immigrants came to Malta.
If you fan the flames, you will definitely cause a fire
“The Prime Minister had also threatened to send migrants back to Libya and was only stopped by the European Court of Human Rights. What can you expect after all this populism?” one observer asked.
“At the time people were also planning demonstrations and the EU was asked to smell the coffee. If you fan the flames, you will definitely cause a fire,” another said.
In the rest of the EU, despite receiving thousands of irregular immigrants every year, citizens seem to be more concerned about ‘bread and butter’ issues.
According to Eurobarometer, in a large majority of member states consider unemployment to be the most important problem facing them.
Despite a slight drop in unemployment at EU level, it is the most cited item in 22 countries.