Avoiding the Mistakes of Others

 

Coming days after yet another attempt at a major terrorist attack, the statement made by the UK's Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly earlier this week, questioning the traditional British consensus on multiculturalism, comes as no surprise. Although our own situation is not identical to theirs, it may be useful for us to reflect on the successes and failures of those who have been facing a similar issue for far longer than we have. Of course, this issue deserves a far more detailed analysis than can be offered here, but I am nevertheless offering some brief notes on what I think could be the main conclusions.

As is well known, France and Britain have adopted two completely different approaches towards their large immigrant communities. France officially does not distinguish between Frenchmen on the basis of faith and ethnic background and does not even count its religious minorities. The UK, on the other hand, virtually allows them to live as separate culturally self-contained communities. Events during these past two years have shown that both approaches have very serious shortcomings, although France has probably made slightly less of a dog's dinner out of it than the British have (which isn't saying much).

Of course, the best approach would be to prevent this headache from occurring in the first place. Luxembourg, for example, has avoided the problem by recruiting its guest workers exclusively from the European continent (mainly Portugal and Italy). In order for us to do this (to the extent possible, given our location) the detention system and the policy of repatriation must be maintained and strengthened. As for those who remain, a combination of what has worked in the French and British system would probably be ideal, as long as it is combined with appropriate policies in other areas.

One thing that both France and Britain seem to have got wrong, for example, is the creation of government-sponsored ghettoes. On no account should we ever do this to ourelves in Malta. As for cultural integration, I would argue that the French policy of trying to make Frenchmen out of all comers works better than the British laissez-faire approach (French Muslims, although they are economically less integrated than their British counterparts, are nevertheless slightly better integrated culturally - in terms of decreasing birth rates and rising rates of intermarriage, for example).

Still, the UK's minorities are not only better off economically than their counterparts in France but also much better represented in the higher echelons of the corporate world (and to some extent in politics). This is for the most part due to the greater possibilities for social mobility in the UK. Needless to say, I think we should emulate the British model in this regard, not just for the sake of better integrating immigrants but also for the sake of getting our economy out of the rut it's been in for the past few years.

Moreover, in order not to exacerbate this problem by giving hope to Islamic triumphalists, we should give more priority than ever to the avoidance of a demographic collapse among the indigenous population. If necessary, we should supplement our numbers by actively encouraging part of our large diaspora to return and also by encouraging immigration from other parts of the world which share our cultural background. For this to happen, we will first need to fix our economy, which we are perfectly capable of doing if we're willing to get rid of the remaining socialist baggage and to invest in education.

With regard to our citizenship laws, we should make sure that they do not change. It is inevitable that the NGOs will move on to this target as soon a substantial community of illegal immigrants is established on the island. They must not be allowed to succeed, as it is essential that the indigenous community should retain control of the political process (while the integration of those who cannot be sent back should be sought in all other ways) and as the granting of citizenship could lead to the phenomenon of 'family reunions', which would make the problem spin out of control. Likewise, our electoral system must remain as it is, first of all in order to keep fringe movements like Alternattiva out of Parliament and secondly to prevent the setting up of Islamic parties in future.

All this might sound somewhat premature, but the best way to deal with potentially serious problems is to neutralize them as early as possible, before they even become problems. If we wait until the problem is already with us then it will probably already be too late.