Chances are today that your domestic helper is a hard working woman from Bulgaria, your house is being painted by a talented Syrian, your son has started dating a lively Spanish girl, your husband employs Scandinavians and your mother is cared for by a dedicated Philippine girl. And no need to slave in the kitchen anymore as a delicious pizza or plate of pasta is too tempting to miss out on at one of the many new restaurants nearby.
Everyone is happy. Except maybe, not so much, the woman from Birkirkara or Fgura who has to visit her ailing mother at Mater Dei every day and is on the bus stop at 7.00 a.m. waiting for the bus to take her there. She looks anxiously for the bus and is relieved when it gets there but as she boards it she is surprised to find that the bus driver does not understand her and she does not understand him and at this first errand of the day, in the heat and the stress, it is really frustrating and starts to wind her up before he can even say Buenas Dias. Encantada she is not!
Funnily enough, the nurse at Mater Dei is also speaking Spanish and the woman is now beginning to wonder where she actually is? Did she daydream herself to Madrid? She tries to restore her balance of mind and carry on with her duty when she gets a call from her husband who is venting his own frustration at the uncertainty of his job in the energy sector, where he fears to be replaced by a Chinese worker. She mutters a “Gesu hanin itlob ghalina” and takes the clean nightie to her mum who is so happy to see her.
Days ago she would go to Leli the grocer and have all her shopping done before sunrise but now she must wait for her husband to take her to Lidl to stock up on all those cheeses and toilet paper. Maybe this evening they can go there and get it done.
The big disconnect, the big society. And who, she thinks, is to blame for all this change to our culture if not the illegal immigrants?
Like our power station, some jobs should just be out of bounds for foreigners. Allow us some space to simply speak our own language and enjoy the familiarity of our own culture. Unfriendly and hot under the collar as any local bus driver may be, sometimes you just want to see a familiar face and be able to just say Bongu, wiehed ghal Mater Dei jekk joghgbok and get on with it.
When Malta woke up to the new Arriva bus service and the muddle of routes and bendy buses, that was not the worst. The worst was when the foreign bus drivers were brought in to replace the drivers who had not shown up for work. That really pushed it overboard. Now not only did people not know where they were going, but they did not know where they were. Ealing or Mellieha? Luton or Bugibba? And how could this driver possibly know that he was expected to drive to where the factory was and going up that hill was going to require some hefty engine power?
And here we are again. It is being reported that the Spanish transport company wants it’s Malta drivers and mechanics to be Spanish. Please, someone, save them the journey and give us some relief. The Maltese are quite tolerant and adapt to change but to expect us to even give up on our language and culture is going to backfire badly. Not to mention that it will take from Christmas to Easter to have the Spaniard drivers pack up and return to their unemployment benefits rather than navigate our roads and our public. As we know already.
As word gets round that Malta is the place to go to for jobs and money, the influx of foreign workers will keep on coming. In the UK they have one of the highest rates of immigration due to their benefits and opportunities and the British people are asking for some control, some change as more and more EU and non EU nationals face recession in their country or low living standard. Here in Malta, we have, until now, absorbed an ever increasing number of legal immigrants with freedom of movement but signs are beginning to show that the tension is building and frustration is mounting at the impact on the business, housing and social sectors.
The business sector is very concerned at the anomalies in the importation of goods by unlicensed persons who simply load stuff on their vans and arrive in Malta through channels other than the customs; the hotel and catering industry is becoming crowded with non-Maltese staff. Go to Paceville and you will find one road which is like a Little Italy. A Greek restaurant on the main road, bars and take-aways of all sorts. People like that. They like the choice and variety. But is it being done fairly and on an even playing field? What jobs are created for the Maltese through these enterprises and what are the employment conditions for staff? Is there regular monitoring of Health & Safety standards?
When it comes to employment, the deck is stacked against the foreigners. Here we risk having a two-tier Europe not just across the block, but within countries themselves. Wages and conditions are at the bottom end for those foreigners who are employed or seek unskilled work. Most work 2 or 3 jobs to cope. With skilled workers it’s the other way round, with Maltese earning less than their foreign counterparts.
In the housing sector, rental prices are rocketing and people are now giving up on finding a flat and resorting to renting a room where available. Soon it will be a bed!
I don’t think it will be a surprise to see people sleeping rough outside and enjoying a meteor shower.
Naturally, crime has also become a feature and our homes are no longer safe. These are realities that we have to confront. It is necessary to build a new approach to dealing with crime. Most of all we need the expertise of other countries, like Italy and the UK who deal with these types of crimes and should have some advantage on profiling the perpetrators. Collaborating & networking with the police from the suspected country of origin of the gangs is essential to get a grip. Re-instated police here and there and all the transfers made is not going to cut it. A police district gets to know it’s criminals and potential threats. Moving out officers with local knowledge at a time of crises certainly does not help.
On a practical level, living and working in a foreign country brings its own problems for many. Like the diligent and industrious man from Mali who finds himself in a position where, after finally having found employment with a good company, following the regulations of employment, he is unable to open a bank account due to the bad situation in Mali which is not considered a safe State. Probably that is why he is here in the first place. But where is the dignity in not being able to be trusted with your own money and to have it safely deposited in a bank account? How many of these bureaucratic obstacles are there for people to navigate? How much discrimination before they are able to integrate properly with society? Do they feel mis-treated in Malta? That would be a shame indeed, because it would not portray the right picture of the Maltese people and their culture.
The situation may find it’s natural limit, when the cost of living as against the job possibilities will simply not work out in favour of prosperity anymore. Given a choice, most people prefer to live and work in their own country. People do not like to leave their family behind. Youngsters need to return to the job market if they ever hope to get back to their life in their city.
For the host country, though, some serious consideration should be given to the impact on our way of life and culture and some boundaries should be set. The incident at the Marsa Sports Club recently, of the Burkina-wearing woman in the pool, will repeat itself too and we need to be prepared to protect our way of life and not be bullied into becoming self-conscious about our values. Clearly, without knowing exactly what will happen to the Enemalta employees and the imposition of contracts for imported workers there, or who will be driving our buses, nerves are definitely fraying. Let’s hope they don’t get to the same point as the Marsa distributer centre.