Family Minister Dolores Cristina stressed the need for the media to play its part in combating racism and xenophobia, which she described as a problem that needs seeing to as quickly as possible.

Legislation to curb racist or xenophobic phenomena is a must she said, adding, however, that there is also a need to focus on creating mutual understanding by acknowledging the realities and fears that feed misconceptions and misapprehension.

Racism is not a new issue in Malta but it has reared its head most significantly over the past few years, largely due to the arrival of so many irregular immigrants. While we seemed to cope well when the number of such migrants was low, once hundreds started arriving every summer to stretch our resources to the maximum, if not beyond, the problem grew.

Ms Cristina is right when she says that a distinction should be made between those who show concern because they realise that a small country such as Malta cannot deal with such a matter on its own and those whose hatred for other cultures, religions and whatnot is ingrained.

While the former reaction is natural for people who want to help out these people in difficulty but who understand that Malta can only do so much to give them a better life, racism is a matter that needs to be curbed before it becomes uncontrollable.

Yet, racism is not only a phenomenon that concerns irregular immigrants. It is much more than that.

In the past, racism was concentrated solely within our own community – the rich Maltese against the poor Maltese, the north against the south, one rival band or football club against the other. This type of racism still exists, as can be seen from the fact that we still have a few incidents here and there. But, on the whole, we have managed to overcome this internal hatred and lead a peaceful life as much as possible, bar those few incidents.

Another point that must be made is that the adults of today grew up in a more or less secluded environment. Most of the schools were all-Maltese – therefore we grew up within our own culture and learned little, except from what we saw on television and read on newspapers, about the ways of life elsewhere. We accepted tourists knowing that they were here to spend money and, even here, we tended to abuse by, say, charging them more than we should have (and many still do).

But, in a more globalised world the presence of foreigners living among us increased. With them they brought their own culture and their own religion. Today, it is not uncommon to find foreign students in local schools.

In a way, our children are growing in a more open environment than we grown-ups did and they accept the way it is. The problem is that adults tend to pass on their feelings onto their children. Young boys and girls will notice that a fellow student looks different or does not attend religion lessons, but learn to live with him or her because children act this way if they are allowed the freedom to do so.

But when the parents realise that their children are playing with a “foreigner” or “someone different” and tell them not to, it is here that the seeds of racism are planted. It is here that children start asking questions and feel the difference which, up to a few days before, was not there.

It is, therefore, a matter of education. While our younger generation is already experiencing life within a multicultural community and, as such, it is much easier for young people to accept such a fact, the older generations must realise that they must learn to live with non-Maltese as well as those Maltese who have a different outlook to life.

It is only by learning to live together that we can continue to live in peace.