'People need to understand why migrants leave their country' – President

People need to understand why migrants leave their country, President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca told the Europe 2020 Poverty Target conference in Brussels, today.

“Rather than blame the victims, we should blame the perpetrators, historical and contemporary,” Coleiro Preca told her audience at the conference debating the EU's original target to have at least 20 million fewer people in Europe in or at risk of poverty by 2020. 

Coleiro Preca criticised the way migrants were treated upon arrival in Malta.

“The exploitative nature of their serving as a grossly underpaid and possibly even non-paid ‘reserve workforce’, and the process of marginalisation, is breeding further poverty and vulnerability,” she said. “Their poverty is also increased by racism which render them the perceived threat to local people and the availability of jobs.”

Coleiro Preca also urged European political parties not to adopt neoliberal open-market politics that are “largely appealing to the public” but “often illusory”.

“There is a constant need for political parties to win elections within short timeframes, which often means pandering to the influential powers that are sold onto the neoliberal cause,” she said. “As an election strategy, this is perceived as strength. On the other hand, the market has proved, time and time again, that it requires regulation to safeguard the interests of the vulnerable.”

Coleiro Preca said that poverty cannot be blamed on a lack education and training, and that ‘lifelong learning’ is no guarantee for employment.  

“We are turning a jobs crisis into a skills crisis, meaning that people do not have the right skills,” she said. “We cannot keep promising ‘lucrative jobs’ for young people to further their education, as if this is the whole purpose of education, when these jobs are at a premium globally.”  

“Today, even young people coming from middle class families acquire more qualifications than their parents, but cannot enjoy their standard of living.”