Editorial

The other day Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi made a comment on the conditional generosity of the Maltese that should make us humbly search our consciences.

He said the Maltese raise funds for worthy causes - also implying this was motivated by the desire to win gifts - but that we find it difficult to assist those who knock on our doors.

We should indeed reflect on that comment. The Mission Fund manages to collect some Lm100,000 a year to help raise the standard of living, including in Africa. Yet, when these same people land on our shores, we resent them.

To put it down to racism is too simplistic. There is no denying that the influx of illegal immigrants is a complex problem, which will certainly not be solved by bickering over whether they should be called irregular immigrants or klandestini.

There is the considerable cost of looking after them, the restricted resources we have to deal with them and the headache of how to allow them to be self-sufficient.

But they are a reality that will not go away. Governments must work to find solutions to absorb this flow, to route it fairly back to its origin and - as is now being done - to solve the poverty that drives them from their homes in the first place. Locally, our government must also fight any involvement by Maltese in their trafficking.

But that does not exonerate anyone from the here and now. Have we forgotten how desperate these people must be to undertake such a perilous journey at considerable cost? More importantly, are we forgetting that they are human beings, just like us? Having said that, there is no denying the crises we are facing as a result of the influx of such immigrants.

Let us defend our "territory" and look after our limited resources. However, we can never be nonchalant about human tragedies just because those involved are not one of us. If a Maltese sailor or fisherman is lost at sea we would all be distraught until he is found - dead or alive. That should apply to all human beings, irrespective of colour or creed.

In adition, we ought also to remind ourselves that, for generations, we have been an ethnically homogenous society, with considerable restrictions on foreigners coming to live or work here. We are even more unfamiliar with Africans. Our perceptions are even more negative because our contact with Africans when we travel is slanted by their preponderance, unfair though it may be, in menial jobs.

The younger generation may be less uncomfortable. They grow up with dark-skinned newscasters, MTV presenters, characters in soap operas, American secretaries of state. Maybe they will accept them as readily as we in the past have accepted the Albanians and Serbians and Bosnians who sought refuge here.

One other point to ponder. A few decades ago, many Maltese were forced to leave these shores to seek a better future. They were not fleeing from religious, political or ethnic repression: They simply wanted a better life for their family.

We were fortunate that we had legitimate ways in which to do so and fortunate indeed that we were welcomed with open arms by countries like Canada and Australia.

Let us be more tolerant with others who find themselves in a position that we were in not so long ago. Theirs is even a worse plight than our grandparents'.