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Visiting the quaint village core of Balzan, Michaela Muscat encounters the real Maltese and their unadulterated views on ‘Black Africans’
Edward is slouching on one of the green benches in the picturesque Balzan square. Slowly taking a drag from his cigarette he lazily peers from under his cap at the housewives bustling around their daily business and the deliverymen unloading their goods in the local grocery store.
He tugs at his dog’s leash. “I am concerned about immigrants taking our jobs because they all work,” he says. “When they arrive in Italy they send them back, in Australia the military accosts them before they even reach the shores, so why should we accept them?” he asks.
With unemployment, according to the Labour Force survey going over 11,000 – around seven per cent of the total labour force – and the ever-increasing cost of living always at the back of people’s minds, the mere mention of immigrants spurs people to mention the sorry state of Malta’s economy. The labour force survey issued by the National Statistics office this week is on everyone’s lips, even in the Balzan watering holes, where the Good Shepherd home, a religious home right in the centre of the town, offers accommodation for refugees.
Venturing into the band club I meet Joseph, who was recently laid off from a Bugibba hotel after it closed shop.
“I can’t afford a mobile because I have to live on Lm40 a week and yet these immigrants are constantly buying top-up cards for their mobiles,” he says angrily. Agitatedly he lights a cigarette and explains to the sizeable crowd the problems his family of four are facing. His wife had to undertake a number of medical tests and his brothers had to help him out because he could not afford to pay for them.
The people drinking in the bar speak of the invasion of the black people. They mention the “filth dealing drugs outside City Gate Valletta,” and the absence of ‘white’ people in buses arriving in their village.
Sina Bugeja, the executive director of the National Commission for Equality, the commission which will now double up as a watchdog on racism, suggests that the feeling that Malta is being invaded is due to our recent history and the recent terrorist attacks. “I don’t deny the need for education for all of our population but Maltese people do understand the plight of those who are less in need.” She believes that the charitable contributions made towards the Tsunami victims are a case in point.
Still in Balzan, the feeling is nowhere close to understanding. One of the wardens sipping on his tea agrees that the Maltese have been indulging African migrants for too long.
“They get free food lodging and clothes” he retorts. “To add insult to injury they complain about the free food and clothes that is donated to them by the charitable Maltese.” He claims he often meets soldiers working in the detention centres. All the people at the bar seem to have heard various stories from people who know people who work at the detention centres. They are all convinced of the ungrateful nature of immigrants. And the punters constantly parrot allegations that immigrants use the means of communications available to explain to their relatives back in Africa the route to Malta.
John Zammit Montebello, the mayor of Balzan, is worried about the racist element in his community. “A large increase of refugees in such a short period of time is noticeable and uncomfortable in a small community like Balzan,” he says. Zammit Montebello acknowledges that Maltese people are insular, intolerant to change and at times xenophobic. He mentions that residents often complain about the foreign students living at the university residence.
“We have to understand that we all have to carry part of the burden. The not-in-my-back-yard attitude is problematic and people expect us to resist the influx of refugees but they don’t understand that it is not up to us.”
The atmosphere in the club is becoming more heated as the patrons delve deeper in the discussion. The curt answers have transformed into monologues about the epic economic woes of our country and the impact immigrants are leaving on our society.
“One has to be careful what to say because it is easy to be labelled racist,” declares the young barman. Sean hesitates to put forward his opinion about immigrants at first.
“I am the worst person to talk to about them, ” he says. “Few people around here dislike them as much as I do,” he continues. And yet, he is unable to articulate what arouses so much fear and hate towards the asylum seekers. Sean is apparently not keen on waiting on them. “Presently they come here to ask for peanuts when they buy a Fanta but tomorrow they will be sitting at one of the tables and snapping their fingers at me asking for more appetisers and ordering me around.”
Charles, a septuagenarian, gesticulates wildly every time “blacks” are mentioned. Pointing out of the window at the immigrant sitting quietly on the bench, he says “why the hell should I feed someone like him? They are worse than animals.”
Raising his voice a few decibels he prophesises that “more are landing every night and we are going to suffer in the future. We didn’t just jump on a boat and invade another country, so why should we allow them to do that? Balzan is chock-a-block with people like them and I heard that in Sliema people had to vacate a playground because it was full of them,” exclaims the pensioner.
Another bystander, Michael Muscat, is standing within twenty feet of the refugee sitting on the bench. He doesn’t need to be coaxed into talking: “Everyone is grumbling because we have got 190 of them near our residence. It is inconvenient for us because a house once valued at Lm80,000 now would hardly be valued at Lm40000.”
He points at the only black man in the square: “He stays here from eight in the morning till one at night. Sun or rain you will find him there.” Spread-eagled on the bench, the refugee politely declines to comment. Michael assures me that it’s nothing personal because the man in question never fraternises with any of them and always refuses offers of free food and drinks.
“They are people like us after all and I only have a problem with them because of the value of my property. People often pass remarks about the fact that our house is situated close to their residence,” says Muscat.
He doesn’t recall any problems save for one time a drunken immigrant started swinging off his front gate in an attempt to break it. “As I was telling him off he started swearing at me in Maltese. But this was a one-off incident. It’s not like they usually cause any trouble.” The Mayor concurs with Muscat. “There has been an increase in crime, but it is not attributable to refugees because arrests have been made and none of them were refugees” he says.
The apprehension felt about immigrants lowering wages is a recurring thought with all the people who spoke to MaltaToday. “They are all hardworking and don’t mind getting paid 70 cents an hour so they are flooding the labour market and putting the wages down.” Middle-aged Joseph Mallia leans against the porch of the house he still shares with his mother, chatting to his friend. He is firmly convinced that jobs should be safeguarded for Maltese taxpaying citizens and not to foreigners.
“It’s not a matter of race or colour – European or African, the Maltese should come first,” he says. “We didn’t join the European union to become Africans.” He believes that Malta has become a latrine. “They are using them as slaves and employing them instead of the Maltese.”
Pointing to the fluttering veil of a black woman walking across the street, he recalls a shopkeeper telling him he was only selling cloth to foreigners because the Maltese were too broke.
The square is brimming with resentment at the refugees living around the corner. The police patrolling the area add to a heightened sense of anxiety. Keeping an eye out for the immigrants, singling them out for pre-emptive criminal behaviour, creates tension.
Sina Bugeja, executive director for the commission on gender equality and racism, thinks that seeing immigrants being treated as criminals reinforces the picture set-up by the media. “The media is truthfully reporting the number of immigrants arriving giving the impression of an invasion,” she says. “But open centres should be given more promotion by the media because they could show these immigrants in a different light.”
Referring to the island’s recent history, she explains that as an isolated country in the middle of the Mediterranean, the influx of people from different ethnicities alarm people, especially the elderly. “The adolescents who watch MTV are exposed to different cultures.”
Read more: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/08/14/t13.html
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