In her annual meeting with ambassadors, President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca spoke of the dangers of extremism and terror.

It has become abundantly clear that the so called Islamic State has escalated its campaign of violence to the whole world. It’s dangerous tendrils have permeated societies in almost every corner of the globe. We have seen the obvious attacks in Iraq and Syria. But they have now hit targets in France, Turkey, Australia, Indonesia and many other countries.

This is what they want. Daesh wants to infiltrate our societies, radicalise our youth and turn them against us. There is a very real danger of that happening to any country, and Malta is not excluded. We do not live in a bubble.

While terrorists have been known to purposely infiltrate countries with the intention of committing terrorist acts and recruiting others to take part in their fiendish plans, we also have to acknowledge the growing danger of home grown terror. As France and the UK have found out, terrorists in the making could be living amongst us. Sometimes they have studied to be doctors, but life traumas lead them into the manipulative hands of hate preachers. Sometimes, they are disenfranchised youths who live in impoverished ghettoes where law enforcement agencies have barely any reach, influence or power.

Those disenfranchised youths grow up to become deeply frustrated, angry and resentful individuals. All it takes is a charismatic recruiter to tell them that they will be given everything in Jennah – or heaven – and they will seek a route out of the suffocating existence that they lead.

And that is exactly why we must integrate people. The more people feel emarginalised by society, the more they will turn to terror. Nowhere is safe. Many believe that Malta will never experience this problem. But it does not happen in the here and now. It happens when migrants settle here and have children, or when their children have children and they are on one of the lowest rungs of the ladder in our society. That, is when they rebel and turn against the country that they are born in. That is when the lure of martyrdom becomes too much to resist. It is a need of a sense of belonging, to be part of something which they can influence and have an effect on.

So yes, we must continue to be vigilant. This does not mean that every migrant family will turn into a terrorist breeding ground, far from it. But just as it has happened in other countries, it could well happen here. Migrant families need access to educational facilities, jobs, healthcare and social mobility. Failure to ensure that this happens will only come back to haunt us later down the line.