One in three people would find it “absolutely unacceptable” if an African migrant married a member of their family, such as their son or daughter, according to a University of Malta study.
Another 12 per cent say it is unacceptable.
Yet, over half of respondents said they did not consider themselves to be racist – highlighting a gap in perception and a need to address it, according to Andrew Azzopardi, Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing that commissioned the study.
“Instead of being quick to brand people as racists, which at times is the case, we need to make sure we provide the mechanisms to make communities work, namely through concrete and tangible initiatives,” Azzopardi said.
The survey, carried out last month by statistician Vincent Marmara, asked 600 people a range of questions to gauge the public’s perception on migration. This was one of a series of surveys commissioned by the faculty to keep tabs on society and to understand future areas of research.
In one of the questions, respondents were asked how acceptable it would be if an African migrant married a member of their family, such as their child. They were asked to rank their response from 1 to 5, where 1 meant “absolutely unacceptable” and 5 meant “very acceptable”.
The majority, 36%, said this would be “absolutely unacceptable”, while 15% said it was “very acceptable”.
The overall average was 2.65 out of 5, with female respondents finding it more acceptable than their male counterparts (2.64: female vs 2.59: male).
Young respondents were most likely to accept a migrant marrying into their family with an average score of 3.23. The lower the level of education of the respondents, the more they were opposed to the idea.
For nearly 30% of respondents, it would be absolutely okay if migrants lived close to their home as they “strongly agreed”, while 20% “strongly disagreed” with the idea.
We need to make sure we provide the mechanisms to make communities work
Respondents were also asked if they thought migrants could contribute to strengthening Malta. In this case 30% “strongly agreed”, 18 per cent% “agreed”, 3% were neutral while the rest “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed”. The overall average was 2.43 out of 5.
Asked if they thought immigration was the main reason why wages were kept low, 27% “strongly agreed” while 25% “strongly disagreed”, with the rest floating in between to reach an overall average of 2.94.
This indicated that, overall, respondents have a neutral opinion.
Asked if they considered themselves to be racist, 57% felt they were “absolutely non-racist”, 26% said they were “not so racist”, 15% said they were “slightly racist” and 2.5% said “very racist”.
Azzopardi explained this all showed that migration remained a crucial issue on the national agenda.
“It is clear from this study that people don’t know how to deal with it. Not only that – it is abundantly clear that our institutions are not doing enough to address the fundamental challenges of community livability and understanding between migrants and local people,” he said.
“I believe the fear of the unknown, the confusing detention policy, the political rhetoric and the politicisation of the debate, the deficit in use of a common language, the lack of control on employers, the long-standing narrative of ‘us and them’, our insecurities as a country, committed initiatives in schools, the false sense of nationhood, lack of data and other issues need to be addressed,” he said
Maria Pisani, from human rights NGO Integra Foundation, said the way racism plays out in Malta is complex, situated, structural and evolving.
“In unpacking these results, I’d have to ask: how do the respondents define racism?
“I think too often we associate the term ‘racist/racism’ with hatred, and this is problematic,” Pisani, a lecturer at the University of Malta’s Department of Youth and Community Studies, said.
“First, because who wants to take on such an identity? Particularly within a culture that is rooted in Christian values. And so often, the knee jerk reaction is to respond with ‘no, I’m not racist’ which I think can be interpreted as ‘no, I’m not a bad person’.
“Secondly, this understanding of racism really fails to capture the nuances of personal bias and how structural racism impacts the lives of persons of colour on a daily basis.
“In other words, individuals fail to recognise how they are part of the problem, how their beliefs are a manifestation of racist beliefs, that is, of how persons of colour are perceived as somehow problematic, inferior, or less than.”
Equally interesting, she added, was that more than 40% of respondents stated that they consider themselves to be racist to some degree.
“My next question would be: is this stated with a sense of pride? – ‘I’m racist and proud’? – or an awareness of their own bias and a willingness to understand where it is coming from, and how it is manifested in everyday life? I’m hoping that it’s more of the latter.”