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Friday 2nd November 2012
Full day training in Poverty, Marginalization and Volunteering

Through his journey, he faced many people whom still believe his is not Maltese purely because he is of African decent and black skin. Contrastingly, he has lived in Malta for a long time and even though he has faced many challenges, he has married a Maltese woman, had mixed raced children and built himself a title not only in his career but also in his village. An element of particular interest that was raised in the discussion is that people only had respect for him because of his qualifications. It was identified that in Malta it is important to be addressed by your title.

Foster Foundation had its 1st training day on Poverty, Marginalization and Volunteering on Friday 2nd November, located at L-Isla Local Council Premises.
The days training began with a talk by Dr Ahmed Bugri, which was uniquely dynamic, profound and sincere. He openly described his experiences as a Migrant in Malta, fundamentally describing himself as being more Maltese than African; stating that overall
‘He is Black and Maltese’.

In Maltese society, there are many close knit communities and villages which he felt was a long and struggling journey to become part of, however he emphasized on the fact that through all the negatives the outcome has been positive and that he has always wanted to return back to Malta because of its human touch. “Living in the south, gives you a real taste of Malta, if the community sees you interested in their traditions, you build a friendship with all”. His talk invigorated participants the opportunity to truly understand and emphasis with his real experiences and to witness the journey of man who refused to give up. “Everywhere I go my skin is thick”.


He is now a director of the foundation for shelter and support to migrants and even though he faced a lot of turbulence in correspondence to being discriminated on his race, color and creed, Dr Bugree remained neutral in his perceptive on the situation of Migration in Malta and expressed how the migrants are just as bad as the flawed political concept; thus, migrants and politics are feeding each other, which is making the situation deteriorate. “When I have a meeting with the government, it kills me when they call me a foreigner, just call me by my name”.
He asserted that ‘that segregation leads to assimilation but never to integration’.

t the real issues regarding migrants in Maltese society.

He stressed how the center gives the migrants tools to amalgamate (such as education, courses and work) however, an overriding problem is that some migrants want to live for free but do not want to give back to the legal system. There are many underlying issues that might fuel this sort of behaviour:

• They come from poverty and risk dying everyday, from the moment they step on the boat they are lied to and told they are being taken to Italy (which is their initial aim) but instead they are taken to Malta and become ‘stuck on a tiny island’. After giving all the money they have to get on the boats, they arrive in Malta and are immediately put into detention centers, which ‘resemble a prison’ for a whole year.

• Human Container - They are already bitter and become even sourer, due to being treated like animals. Therefore, the question is after all this suffering, why would they want to give back to the legal system?

• A Lack of policy in Malta was identified, which usually speaks louder than the actual policy
• National thinking – Migration is spreading, underlying foundation is that Malta is full and they don’t want anymore

• Dr Bugre also identified, how in Africa there is no freedom of speech, these migrants do not know the meaning of democracy therefore they cannot let go of Tribalism, which is a big issue which needs to be demolished from Malta.

• He stated that the migrants have to put themselves in to the community and work and make the effort to become integrated.

 

This then encouraged the participants to identity and share what they think are common issues and discuss potential barriers to integration. Points that were raised during this discussion was:


• How discrimination is still very prominent in Maltese society.


• That discrimination is not only related to colour but also and most probably more importantly to religion


• There needs to be a system Implemented whereby the migrants have to attend courses instead of doing nothing all day which enables them to MOVE from Malta afterwards and get work.


• The center needs to be changed to a reception center whereby the migrants have to move after a year.


• The issue of interactivity is getting worse and needs to be sorted through potential barrier breakdowns.



The organizations actively networked with one another and exciting current and future collaborations concerning Integration projects were discussed. The training day was full of stimulating and powerful discussion, which fuelled debate and healthy exchange about the real issues regarding poverty, marginalisation and volunteering.

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