The University of Malta’s top brass will be discussing students’ views on migration after a survey revealed more than a third of undergraduates were not willing to share the campus with asylum seekers.
Reacting to the survey published on Tuesday by the University Students’ Council (KSU), Rector Juanito Camilleri told Times of Malta: “Any form of racism or racial intolerance is deplorable.”
The University Senate will discuss the matter at its next meeting.
“The University goes to great lengths to attract foreign students to our campus and to make them feel most welcome... and we hope the numbers will continue to increase,” Prof. Camilleri said.
He pointed out that there were about 85 nationalities represented on campus, making up 10 per cent of the student population.
The University goes to great lengths to attract foreign students and to make them feel most welcome
The KSU survey also showed that 20 per cent of respondents did not agree with giving migrants equal access to employment, even if they had the necessary qualifications and a valid work permit.
On top of that, 40 per cent said they would not be comfortable living in the same street as an immigrant.
Describing the figures as “worrying”, University Pro-Rector Joe Friggieri said that they reflected the views of the general population.
Around 90 per cent of the 400 students surveyed said they acknowledged that racism was a problem and more than 40 per cent agreed with using an illegal pushback policy to deal with the influx of migrant arrivals.
Prof. Friggieri highlighted this response as one of his major concerns.
“If we had to look at the figures, the most worrying would be those related to pushbacks,” he said.
“Those who are in favour of this are either unaware of what will happen to immigrants if they are sent back to their country or they couldn’t care less.
“If that is the case then not much can be done.”
The contentious policy had dominated the national headlines after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat considered the return of a group of 102 migrants to Tripoli in July.
The move was eventually blocked by the European Court of Human Rights following joint action by a number of humanitarian NGOs.
A landmark judgment by the Strasbourg court had previously ruled that the Italian government had violated the rights of a group of migrants’ who were sent back to Libya without processing their asylum applications in 2009.
Maria Pisani, a lecturer specialised in migration issues and an activist, said she had consulted with KSU on the survey.
She said the students’ underlying assumption was that all irregular migrants were African when, in fact, the vast majority were white.
Dr Pisani said the findings reflected the views of Maltese society at large and were fuelled by misinformation.
“As a country, we have not addressed the issue of migration correctly. We have created a crisis through the use of incorrect terminology and this persists even among University students,” she said.
The lack of a clear policy on migration, she added, led people to fear others and to worry about a “migrant invasion”.
More than a third of all the students interviewed said they thought the island was too small to cope with the continued migrant arrivals.