Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/608340
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 2015 15 the directorate itself? While xeno- phobia might not be a major cause for concern among migrants, it is an issue affecting individuals and NGOs who work in that sector. Suffice it to say that some people involved in migration issues have been singled out for verbal and sometimes even physical violence: the arson attack on Katrine Camill- eri's home springs to mind. Has Silvan Agius encountered similar hostility or resistance him- self? "I don't meet it often. That might, however, have to do with the fact that the people we meet in our of- ficial capacity are not necessarily representative of the country as a whole. Everybody we talk to in the institutions knows how important it is to have a holistic integration policy." Agius acknowledges that this might not reflect the popular mood. However, he invites people to re- flect on the reality of the situation. "Prior to setting up this directo- rate, we did not necessarily know that Malta was aiming towards this. For a long period of time, the idea was that migrants were coming in, and migrants had to move on. Any attempt at integration was viewed as 'transitional'. We provided Eng- lish lessons, perhaps, but the idea was that they would be resettled in Canada, the USA, elsewhere in Europe… and, 'problem solved'. We now know it's not like that. The numbers indicate that Malta's migrant population will continue to increase. I'm not talking about the so-called 'boat people'. The vast majority are coming from the EU; the second largest category are third country nationals who either have a job in Malta, or have some- how come through legal channels." Asylum seekers, he adds, consti- tute the smallest category by far. "The thing to bear in mind is that the opposite of integration is not 'migrants going back to their coun- try'. It's ghettoes… it's problems relating to people not fitting in. Not everybody is putting the same effort into integrating. Some will not integrate of their own accord, unless there is an effort to include them. Some might feel that society doesn't want them; and their coping mechanism may not be to integrate more. They might retreat from so- ciety, and build their community away from others…" And yet – to play the Devil's Ad- vocate – some of the concerns ex- pressed by opponents of integration are hard to dismiss. Multicultural- ism has not been overly success- ful in other parts of Europe. How would he respond to concerns that similar problems may surface here? "This may sound like a play on words, but for us it isn't. We're not so much in favour of 'multicultur- alism'; we're in favour of 'inter- culturalism'. We don't want to have communities sitting side by side; we want them to mix, and to be a part of the evolving Maltese identity…" But what makes him so confident that integration will work in Mal- ta, when (to continue playing the Devil's Advocate) it hasn't always worked elsewhere? "Let me offer a reflection of my own experiences. When I lived briefly in Australia, there were two sides to it that I could see. There was 'multiculturalism', in the sense that you could go to the huge Chi- natown in Sydney… and it really was Chinatown. But then, you could go to other parts where the division between the Chinese community and the white community, or Thai community, or any other ethnicity, was not that obvious anymore. So in Australia, you have both. There are communities sitting side by side; but also intermingling and inter- marrying…" That, he adds, is indeed less true in Europe. "I lived briefly in the Netherlands, and for longer in Bel- gium. Reflecting on Brussels, which is now at the centre of the storm, so to speak: if you walk through the streets of Molembeek [the district from where the identified Paris ter- rorists hailed]… what you will see there is not 'integration'. It's the opposite of integration. Firstly, the white people who used to live in that area have either moved out, or are in the process of moving out. That is something people on the ex- treme right don't want… but I don't want it, either. Regardless of politi- cal views, none of us wants to see it happen in this country. We don't want to have areas which become ghettoes of one community or an- other. Isn't it a little late, though? One direct consequence of Malta's pre- vious (and current) immigration policies was to concentrate open and closed detention centres in the south of Malta. Marsa is the obvi- ous case… it may not be Molen- beek, but you certainly can't call it a perfect example of integration in practice, either… "I disagree that it's too late. The situation in Marsa developed over the last 10 years. It could have been handled better, but it wasn't. But that doesn't mean we can't move on to a better situation. The fact that there are already the beginnings of ghettoization does, however, make it difficult. I'm not saying it will be easy. I'm not painting some migrant integration Utopia that will not en- counter difficulties. And we might not achieve all our goals, either. Or maybe we will, but the results will be different from what we expected. I wouldn't, however, argue that it's too late…" Interview SILVAN AGIUS, newly appointed director of the Human Rights and Integration Commission, argues that the opposite of integration is ghettoisation integrate is not an option PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD