Cosmopolitan Malta

The preliminary report of the 2021 Census of the Maltese Population and Housing that was recently published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) is quite interesting. It confirms the claim that Malta has moved a long distance from being an inward looking closed society to an open cosmopolitan one.

The preliminary population headcount stands at 519,562 – an increase of 25% since 2011 or an average increase of 10,000 persons per year – the highest change ever recorded between one census and another.

Malta is by far the most densely populated country in the EU with 1,649 persons per square kilometre compared to an average of almost 100 persons per square kilometre for the EU.

With males counting for 52% of the population, more males than females were recorded for the first time in a census. This is explained by the fact that more than 20% of persons counted are foreigners.and these are predominantly male and younger in age compared to the native Maltese population.

For the first time ever, the census also covered the religious affiliations of the population with 96.4% identifying themselves as Roman Catholics. This does not mean that they are practising Catholics. A recent survey commissioned by the Archbishop’s Curia gives quite a different result when it comes to how many people practise their religion or go to Mass every Sunday. It is obvious that a hefty part of that 96.4% is Catholic by culture and tradition, rather than by faith.

Whether one likes it or not, this is the trend in the traditionally Catholic nations of Europe with large swathes of people remaining culturally Catholics without really observing their religion.

Even so, the mix of religious affiliations of the other 3.6% is fascinating with the most common religious affiliation after Roman Catholicism being Islam. The effect of so many foreigners choosing to reside in Malta and, in the case of those coming from non-EU countries given working permits to do so is palpable. Today certain jobs in Malta are dominated by non-Maltese employees. Forget about ‘Switzerland in the Mediterranean’. It is now ‘Dubai in the Mediterranean’!

Contrary to the impression given in some press reports, the census covers people residing in Malta and not just Maltese citizens. According to the web-site of the NSO, any person who has either already resided in Malta for at least 12 months by the Census date, or is residing in Malta with the intention of staying for at least 12 months by Census date is considered to be a resident and had to fill-in the questionnaire. Any person arriving in Malta by June 2021 for work purposes with the intention of staying longer than June 2022, therefore was included in the Census.

However the census refers to residents and does not seem to break the relative figure down into Maltese nationals, EU nationals and non-EU nationals.

The current make-up of the resident population shows that the make-up of people who live in Malta today is quite different from what it used to be in the recent past.

One can already see the effect of so many residents born overseas in our education and health services. One can hardly go to a state clinic or hospital without encountering a sizeable proportion of foreigners sharing the health service with us.

Similarly state schools are now also at the service of the children of these foreigners. In the school at St. Paul’s Bay there are classes where children born of Maltese parents are a minority. Incidentally the population in St. Paul’s Bay has almost doubled from the previous census: it now exceeds 32,000.

The census helps us understand where we have arrived, even if many cannot understand why this development actually happened so suddenly.

It should also serve as an awakening  to make us realise that we have to think and plan for the future before this relentless drive for more people on this tiny island goes out of control.

Welcome to cosmopolitan Malta!

Speaking Maltese

The current efforts in favour of the Maltese language being pushed by the President’s Office and pro-Maltese NGOs favouring the use of the Maltese language in all circumstances are faced with untold problems. How can I speak Maltese to a foreign waiter serving me at a cafe’? Or why does a state agency spend taxpayers’ money on billboards advertising ‘Jobs fil-films’ when they should say ‘Impjiegi fl-industrija tal-films’? Or is it ‘tac-cinema’?

Efforts should be made to teach Maltese to foreigners who have made Malta their home.

In fact I am surprised at how many of these foreigners eventually learn how to talk in Maltese.

I was even more surprised recently when I overheard a Libyan talking to a Serb in Maltese. Both of them learnt (broken) Maltese on their own in Malta and they found it was the only language with which they could understand each other. Maltese is not dying, more so because foreigners working in Malta eventually need to learn how to speak it, as well as because the majority of Maltese actually speak Maltese.

Rather than asking Maltese to keep talking in Maltese when the majority of them do, one should help in the effort of getting foreign residents to speak in Maltese when the majority of them are actually keen to learn the language of the country of their ‘adoption’.

Find your alternative

I have often lamented on the lack of planning when alternative routes are indicated when works make it impossible for cars to use some road.

People are told which roads they cannot use and information on alternative routes is scarce, if not even misleading.

Sometimes an easy alternative route is available by temporarily changing a one-way street to the opposite direction or temporarily shifting it to a two-way street. This is not so difficult to do, but it is apparently impossible for people at Transport Malta to think of it.

Shifting the responsibility for the search for an alternative route onto the driver

When they do, they then forget to revert to the previous signage when the works are completed.

Their way of doing things is incredibly short-sighted, anyway.

A contractor who apparently couldn’t be bothered recently decided to shift the responsibility for the search for an alternative route on to the driver by putting up a sign saying: ‘Road closed. Please find alternative route’.

I suppose this had the blessing of Transport Malta. They do not bother either.