Xenophobia, sexism and any type of discrimination have no place in a modern country in 2017, Civili Liberties Minister Helena Dalli told a conference this morning.

“My ministry is committed towards tackling worrying trends that may emerge from time to time as society becomes more complex. Stereotypes, racism, xenophobia, discrimination and radicalisation have no place in our society.

“Our experience is that if we are few but doing the right thing, others will follow,” she told a symposium about multiculturalism and integration.

The minister recalled that just a few years ago there were those who opposed the long overdue right to divorce in Malta.

We were agents of change, but those against change did their utmost to trip us, derail us, and see us fail, she said, adding that resilience helped overcome conservative hurdles in the way. The same happened with civil union, gender identity law and more recently, with emergency contraception.

“As agents of change, we were not afraid to lead. We knew we were doing the right thing and that others will follow, albeit reluctantly at the beginning. And we did not shy away from taking the lead in this area of policy even though we know that we know that we haven’t won all hearts and minds yet.”

In a modern country in 2017 we must not tolerate xenophobia, sexism or any other type of discrimination. Diversity made us stronger, not weaker, the Minister said.

Dr Dalli was speaking at a symposium organised by the Faculty for Social Well-being in collaboration with the EU-funded Re.Cri.Re Project.

The symposium discussed two international studies, one of which looked into the social representations concerning the integration of Arabs among the Maltese.

Dr Sammut also spoke of a study of the acculturation attitudes and expectations among six socio-ethnic groups in Malta, namely the Maltese themselves, Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, South Asian, East Asian and Arab communities.

While the Maltese acknowledged that integration was the best way to settle down in a host country, the Maltese were the least to favour it out of all ethnic groups.

This meant that, while foreigners were trying to integrate, the Maltese were not allowing them to and preferred to see migrants – of any nationality – taking on Maltese characteristics instead.

More information about these studies is available here.