The small Mediterranean island country of Malta has seen an astonishing shift in ethnic groups over the past 20 years, evoking strong opinions on race and immigration. “We are a racist country, there is no shifting around that,” said Andrew Azzopardi, professor of Migration Studies at The University of Malta.
In 2005, merely 1% of the country’s population were immigrants from non-EU countries. Now, a quarter of the country’s population are non-EU nationals. “Two weeks ago, I was sitting in a cafe, and an Indian family came into the shop. A Maltese man refused to move his chair so they wouldn’t be able to sit,” said Azzopardi. “Some Maltese people say that Indians smell like spices and are dirty.”
To understand this shift and social attitudes towards immigrants in Malta, journalist Matthew Vella, who has previously reported on immigration in Malta, gave insight about the country’s past. He explained how its demographic changed from being a “mainly white, conservative, Catholic society that had been relatively shielded from external events,” to a country that now is home to so many immigrants.
Asylum seekers from Africa
Through an email response, Vella explained that immigration into Malta in large numbers began in 2004, when asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa began arriving in Malta via boat. This group was first held in detention centers before working as unskilled laborers. “Immigration via boat was visible on the news, and people would panic when they saw videos of boats arriving,” said Azzopardi.
As explained by Vella, this panic quickly led to racism, which was fueled by the media landscape in Malta. “The situation was made worse by the government’s constant narrative that painted the arrival of a maximum of 2,000 asylum seekers a year as a ‘crisis,’” said Vella, explaining how this “false narrative” quickly spread through the country. To add even more fuel to the fire, “far-right movements also started in Malta due to the influx of asylum seekers,” he said.
However, Godfrey Baldacchino, professor of sociology at the University of Malta emphasizes through an email response that although far right groups exist in Malta, they have not gained any significant traction in elections.
Legislatively, Malta has recently adopted more restrictive policies on refugees through the EU Pact on Migration asylum, but has not taken action towards setting up protections for refugee human rights. In response to this, Baldacchino said, “Perhaps the Maltese Government is taking this political stance in order to ‘protect’ itself from the absence of any burden-sharing and solidarity at European level. Should 1,000 illegal migrants arrive at our shores today, what happens?”
Economic migrants from Asia
From 2010-2015, there was a period of economic growth in Malta, due to the country’s efforts to “boost investment, pursue structural reforms and ensure responsible fiscal policies,” according to Malta Enterprise.
Vella explained that this growth attracted migrants from both inside and outside of the EU. There was “a new working class of Asian workers – bus drivers from Pakistan, nannies and care workers from the Philippines, and very soon many more Asian workers taking up service and carer jobs (healthcare, catering, logistics, manufacturing, etc).”
Azzopardi explained that compared to the refugees who spend many months in detention centers upon arrival, this group of migrants are much more visible to the general public in daily life. “It is a strange relationship as our comforts are highly dependent on these people, but we look down on them, and they are overworked and underpaid,” he said.
“The Maltese treat such workers as walking dollars rather than members of society,” said Vella, who explained that many of these immigrants during this period “started taking up much-needed jobs that the Maltese were not taking on.” Although more integrated into the daily lives of Maltese people, “there was little to no reaction [to this wave of immigrants], but a passive acceptance of economic ‘rationality,’” he said.
Baldacchino also acknowledges this so-called ‘economic rationality’ of immigrants, but states that “no strong anti-immigration sentiment exists in Malta, probably because practically all immigrants are working and subsidizing our pensions.”
What influences the treatment of immigrants in Malta?
On the other hand, Azzopardi says that the treatment of immigrants is getting worse over time and gives several examples of ‘anti-immigration sentiment’. “There is a messy detention policy, the government chucks people out like ICE,” he said. “Immigrants are renting out mattresses, living in stables, and being killed in drive-by shootings. Not enough people are speaking out and using their voices.”
In 2019, two off duty soldiers killed an immigrant from the Ivory Coast. “Cisse was shot on the night of 6th April 2019 while walking back to the Ħal Far Open Centre after watching a football match in Birżebbuġa,” reported Lovin Malta. The trial for this case is scheduled for October 19th 2026, seven years after the shooting.
When explaining why immigrants and racial minorities are ‘othered’ in Malta, Vella said, “people question the impact of a growing population on our healthcare system (which is tax-funded and universally free at point of service), on our traffic (increased use of private cars), and on our public transport system (today mainly used by low-income foreign workers.”
However, Baldacchino views this strain that the immigrant population is adding onto infrastructure through a different lens. “No hard feelings really, but the donkey is loaded with a heavy baggage, and the straw keeps piling up – will the donkey’s back break?” he asked. “Water supply interruptions, power outages, traffic jams, overloaded public transport…”
To explain racism and anti-immigration attitudes in Malta, Azzopardi points towards what he calls “a strange nostalgia.”. He says that many Maltese people have an attachment to their strong Catholic identity, although many people are turning away from the religion. “People are worried that immigrants will take away their religion, but many of these immigrants are very devoted Catholics from the Phillipines,” he said, while pointing out that many Maltese people now only get married in churches because they are ‘fancy.’
Azzopardi also uses the term ‘strange nostalgia,’ to describe Malta’s attachment to language, which stems from Malta’s time as a British colony. Since immigrants do not come into the country speaking Maltese, “people feel like their identity is being chewed away,” he said. “I don’t think so. I can’t understand the obsession that identity is tied to language and religion. Identity is tied to togetherness and unity. If I am talking with you and speak in English, why should I be bothered that you don’t speak Maltese?”
On the topic of language and identity, Vella states that immigrants generally have a lack of buy-in to learning Maltese. “My view is that the number one obstacle to integration here is, apart from the rentier mindset that treats foreign workers who lack agency as walking dollars, is a lack of buy-in to Maltese society via its language,” he said.
Lastly, both Vella and Azzopardi point out Malta’s island geography in relation to this resistance to change. “Malta is an island state seemingly far away from anything else and has been colonized by other countries throughout history, which causes this feeling of insecurity,” Azzopardi said.
“Today I feel inclined to concede that the racism that is prevailing amongst Maltese has a particular psychological pattern – a small society, locked into a small rock, vigilant about external pressures that can affect the serenity of a relatively peaceful, crime-free society, pressures,” said Vella.
