According to latest figures issued by the National Office of Statistics (NSO), foreign nationals in the labour market make up one-third of workers in employment.
Such people might help in solving the residual gap in the Maltese labour market created by new ventures and investment in the services sector such as online gambling and maintenance service of aircraft.
This new foreign direct investment in the Maltese economy enhances the quality of the labour market by offering lucrative and well-paid jobs. The flip side of this portrays a glut of enterprises operating in the services sector which tend to offer humdrum and poorly paid jobs.
This new scenario has thus created a dual labour market of two extremes – one that provides highly skilled and well-paid lucrative jobs in contrast to the other which provides low-paid jobs with poor working conditions.
This new economic and political landscape can be called a reality check in the sense that it has made Maltese society more exposed to a diversity of social structures and mentalities.
This cosmopolitan outlook may transcend forms of allegiance and, in the process, make us more exposed to the sources of different social and cultural identities. This may indeed make us feel that we are members of a global community which exalts the spirit of secularism and challenges the traditional roots of our indigenous culture.
It reminds us that the world we live in is not just different but demands new attitudes. This reshaping of our social structure and creation of more individualism in our social interactions has been identified as being one of the features of the globalised world. Indeed, globalisation proved to be an age of exceptional cosmopolitan influence ushering an ideology characterised by ethnic, racial, national and similar forms of diversity.
However, these new social trends have not been completely left to flourish and have become an ossified version of reality. There have been reactions or, rather, resistant forces to this transcendence of cultural roots which seem to be deeply embedded at the community level of Maltese society.
A typical example of this resistance is the persistent nature of titular feasts celebrated annually in Maltese communities. Jeremy Boissevain, an anthropologist who, in the 1960s, conducted qualitative research on the dynamics of the village titular feast, predicted that the forces of modernity would eventually make the celebration of village feasts a symbol of anachronism.
Maltese society is more exposed to a diversity of social structures and mentalities- Saviour Rizzo
However, in reviewing his thesis years later he admitted that he was wrong in his prognosis as he noticed the persistence of the high level of passion and verve among the parishioners in the celebration of feasts. Indeed, he noticed that parishioners were investing more energy, time and money to make these feasts more appealing to everyone, locals and tourists alike.
The deeply embedded roots of Maltese indigenous culture have thus proved to be a powerful resistant counter force to the waves of radicalisation inherent in the new cosmopolitan outlook of Maltese society. Boissevain admitted that, in his prognosis, he had underestimated the cultural momentum of the Maltese attachment to religious pageantry.
However valid this statement may sound, I think that the spirit of community might have played a more crucial part in this resistant and persistent stance. In this sea of change that gripped Maltese society, the sense of community spirit has acted as a bulwark of the values and beliefs that provide the ingredients of that much-needed sense of belonging.
In a society that is awash with risks and uncertainties, the possibility of a retreat to the community, even if it is a temporary, can help the individual cope better with the pressures of a liberal outlook promoted by those who are likely to benefit from the dissolution of the older order.
Such a kaleidoscopic view of cosmopolitanism provides us with a diversity of perspectives which consist of several pieces that need to be rearranged. Caution is, however, needed in this arrangement exercise as one slight turn can completely alter the image.
Saviour Rizzo is a former director of the Centre for Labour Studies at the University of Malta.