This is a debate we often have at the Faculty for Social wellbeing.

It is easy to think that with all the money we put into our social benefits and the social sector, the highly committed NGO sector, the voluminous social corporate responsibility - it makes it seem as if we are a society that hinges our communities to values of social justice and equality and that no one is left by the wayside.

But this cannot be further from the truth.

There are endless indicators that things are not working as they should, notwithstanding all the resources that are being siphoned into the sector. I believe the three reasons are that (1) we have an ailing social policy that needs a jump start and hence the need for a long-term social policy plan, as we are currently walking in the dark. (2) We need a more transversal model which brings the bits and pieces together (for example, we cannot speak about social wellbeing if we do not bring in environmental and planning issues; morality, ethics and values; AI and blockchain, to mention a few) and so we need restructuring from the roots up. (3) We need strong leadership in service delivery and policy management, founded on social justice principles and not knee-jerk reactions motivated by a hundred other things (people like; Andre’ Callus of Moviment Graffiti, HE President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, journalist Peppi Azzopardi, social operator Nora Macelli and opinion-maker Jeremy Camilleri).

Our systems as they are, maybe not intentionally, are perpetuating unfairness, prejudice and inequality. At the core is an economy that is engendering and causing difficulty for minorities to benefit equally from its affluence. It seems that the richer segment of our population is finding it easier to benefit from the generated wealth and statistics and our economists continue to confirm that (vide 103 Malta’s Heart radio show of the 8/5 - https://103.mt/podcast/andrew-azzopardi-on-103-8th-may-2021/).

As a consequence, ‘social mobility’ is a non sequitur. So many hoi polloi just cannot move up the social ladder notwithstanding the grousing of politicians’. As a matter of fact, there are so many pointers clearly showing exclusion and inequality as being at the core of our social problems. Let me mention the main ones:

·         Housing of the ‘social’ type is a major issue.  We still have a large group of people who need social housing or are practically dependent on social housing services. Apart from that there are people who still live in households cum slums. Add this to the growing phenomenon of homelessness and you would immediately realise that this is a complex situation that needs solutions. Needless to say, rent is another factor that is pulling people down from a number of angles.

·         Then we have people who find the educational system impossible to access, a system which is essentially designed to perpetuate the middle-class ideals and makes it difficult for people deriving from other backgrounds to retrieve its benefits.  We are also seeing children who just cannot access the community and are struggling because the educational system is not facilitating them, a system designed to punish creativity and innovation and commend conformity. 

·         Children are also lacking voice. Apart from that we need to be vigilant because there is a lot of exploitation happening.  You have minors who are working in offices, shops, workshops and they are not being protected by the State and meanwhile paid pittance for the hours they put into their jobs. Then there are NEETs, who are young persons who are not working or being trained for work – this is an invisible segment of our children that really needs to be supported. 

·         Another indicator of social discomfort is the high rate of loneliness with an estimated 44% of the population who feel lonely as per the Faculty’s prevalence study of 2019. It is highly probable that this might be even worse off following the pandemic – an indicative study had mentioned more than double that figure. 

·         There is also recidivism which is at a staggering high (circa 66%) and more so for the so-called ‘crime families’ (72%) – amongst the highest in the World. Rehabilitation in prison is a hopeful wish.

·         We also have hundreds of reports a year going into domestic violence and child abuse reports. These two cohorts are at the receiving end of so much suffering. Notwithstanding the resources - social, police and other - there is still a lot that needs to be done.

·         People with mental health problems are also shoved down the pecking order as are disabled people who still struggle big time to feel part of the community. 

·         We also tend to forget pensioners who just cannot cope with the allowance they receive. Living as a pensioner with all the health and other needs makes you lose hope and encourages you to give up and just move into a State-run home.

·         Drug addiction remains a big and seemingly thorny problem. We just cannot keep up with the problem which seems to have tackled us all. People are confused as to how to deal with this issue, which is of such mega proportions. We have almost been normalized into this situation. 

·         You also have groups like single mothers who are conveniently lynched and accused of being benefit frauds.

·         People who work as manual laborers, for example factory workers, are at the bottom of the food chain with their voices hardly heard or felt.

·         Migrants who are exploited in the job market and left without any type of protection - whether it is unions or health and safety - and lack of adequate conditions of work are another ‘invisible’ group in society. Needless to say, racism in this country is still rampant and you can almost stroke it.   

·         Low-skilled workers at the tail end of the system who are forced to work in unorthodox and illegal conditions.

·         Gender issues remain tremendously knotty.  Women are nowhere near being at the center of decision-making processes in this country – the glass ceiling is fair to middling and nowhere near being broken.

·         LGBTQi communities at face value have made strides forward. But what we need to see is more integration. This community is still patronized and abused and their access to the community is restricted.

·         All of this is compounded by problems that affect more intensely certain regions in Malta, especially the inner harbor region due to gentrification and areas where commerce takes over from livability.

Let’s admit that middle-class privileges are prevalent. The way our social system works can only be navigated by the middle-class. The difference in income between the rich and the poor is still whopping, but what I’m most worried about is the lack of integrity between groups in society. The easiest thing to do is to blame the poor and the marginalized and claim that they need to make things tick, but what we have is structured inequality and a lack of distribution of the collective resources. It is not true that people have equality of opportunities. Who would choose to remain defunct? The Maltese dream is smacking right back into our faces.