The trident of peace, development, and security is still all-pervasive enough to affect all aspects of Malta’s concerns about itself as a region and about its constituent islands and insular territories. The region now finds itself particularly vulnerable on questions of cultural sovereignty and identity, once seemingly harmless and inconsequential areas of activity. They have, however, been areas that the old colonialism had for centuries exploited to establish effective domination by various means.
Once we broke completely free from the colonial chains and after a relatively sustained period of national and cultural identity promotion we are now having to face new and pervasive threats to that same national and cultural identity that had somehow moulded us together as one nation distinguishable and apart from others. There is no doubt that immigration easily identifies itself as one of those threats and presents many challenges to us as a nation.
A broader definition of security includes societal, economic, internal, and public safety questions related to immigration. It is unavoidable that immigration will be perceived as a threat to our society and the economy, as well as to internal security and public order, but to what extent? We have seen criminal phenomena linked to some trends in several countries with immigrants starting to be perceived as a threat to the national identity of some states and unwanted influence on cultural concepts.
Whereas until now ethnic groups were normally accepted into our community and contributed to changing their problematic attitudes over time for integration, the denial of many ethnic immigrants is being observed. Many people worry about uncontrolled immigration from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Over the past few years, international migration has become a top security and national culture priority for many states. The question that keeps coming up is, "Is immigration a security and cultural threat?
We must investigate the claim that immigration is a threat to security and our cultural identity by focusing on integration difficulties. It is necessary to analyze the imperatives, which allow religious groups to treat the peculiarities of their followers. We must consider and explain where possible why men in certain cultures and religions impose oppression and violence against women, based on the supposed inferiority of women. Of course, other rites and customs are being imported into our small nation that are completely anathema to our traditions, practices and customs.
Just consider a few ordinary and daily examples and contrast them with the rules and attitudes of various ethnic immigrant communities that have, over these years, been occupying and taking over large areas on our islands. Is it appropriate or somehow offensive to some of them to kiss in a restaurant or in a lift? For us Maltese that would be normally acceptable although not desirable. Would it be socially acceptable for them to curse Allah in public, or to curse at all?
On the other side of the coin, how far can we Maltese accept and tolerate the increasing social, cultural, linguistic and religious influences that such immigrant ethnic groups are having on ours? As it is, is it not a fact that we have, unfortunately, restrained and limited how we are used to celebrating in public our religious feasts ostensibly so as not to offend their sentiments? Is it not a fact that these foreign influences have brought with them such unacceptable practices as child marriages and female genital mutilation? And is it not a fact that these immigrant ethnic communities, as time passes, are often pressing for what they consider to be a right to either build more mosques, build a synagogue or be able to have open-air pyres in conformity with eastern religious funerary practices?
It turns out, and it is not particularly surprising, that the answer to these questions has a lot to do with the country you live in. It also turns out that the ecological and historical threats our country faces correlate with how its citizens respond to the answers above. Let us face it, the national and cultural Maltese identity we were used to has already been transformed into what I perceive to be a cosmopolitan one along the lines of such areas as London, Munich or Paris. It is more and more becoming a clash between the culture we are wont to be used to, that is, a loose culture with weak norms and high tolerance of deviant behaviour, and imported tight culture, those with strong social norms and low tolerance of deviant behaviour. It is imperative to identify and address the implications for modern Maltese living and working within systems and cultural communities that operate along a local continuum from tight to loose.
Maltese cultural identity was established on the core values shared in our living society. These values include language, dressing style, way of talking, habits, and many others. Different immigrant ethnic communities are threatening to sweep away the traditions and culture of our society, affecting changes in the behaviour and thinking of our populace. I also dare to state that a cultural loss seems too apparent in some local communities where the main culture is weak.
On another front, it is equally important to assess our cultural heritage’s resilience to climate change. Has not the time arrived for Malta to take specific actions, like renovation and retrofitting of old buildings, or the need to integrate cultural heritage and climate change policies? Our cultural heritage and identity are under threat from climate change at an unprecedented speed and scale. Yet, we do not have proper policies and action plans in place to mitigate these.
Improving heritage resilience to climate change involves a strategic shift towards investment in new forms of development. For example, instead of demolishing old buildings of cultural value, they should be maintained, repaired, reused and retrofitted, which is more climate-friendly. Additionally, awareness-raising is needed at all levels of our society of the vulnerability of cultural heritage and the increasing threats posed by climate change. There is also a need to further invest in research and education by systematically including cultural heritage in the national education systems and national research programmes.
If this trend keeps going on, the Maltese national and cultural identity will be lost forever.
Dr Mark Said.