integration Archives - aditus foundation

Press Statement: Stability Not Uncertainty: We Demand Rights!

🇬🇧 Valletta, 22nd February, 2024

We, as long-term migrants living and working in Malta, are uniting to demand stability, not uncertainty, in our lives. In light of recent events and ongoing struggles faced by the migrant community, we are asserting our rights and calling for urgent action from authorities. We arrived in Malta years ago, leaving behind critical situations in our countries of origin, and now call Malta home. Although we were neither given protection nor a residence card, we were given the right to work legitimately and in turn to pay tax and national insurance for decades.

3 fab mini clips on building communities!

We’re so happy to launch 3 fab mini clips that talk about integration and building communities!

The clips, partially financed by the EU in our project 2incING, capture one of our key messages: let’s stop treating migrants and refugees as objects to be managed and dealt with! Instead, let’s bring them into the discussions about their lives. Let’s listen to them. Let’s respect their identities. In doing so, our own communities get stronger, more resilient and more colourful.

When migrants and refugees speak for themselves…

…their narratives are more authentic and hard-hitting! We are super happy to share a Shadow Report on integration issues, research and produced by a group of migrants and refugees in Malta.

Produced in the context of our 2incING project, the report is the first-ever technical submission giving a direct and unfiltered voice to migrants and refugees. This is what happens when migrants and refugees speak for themselves!

The Shadow Report, available in English and in Maltese, looks at several aspects of life in Malta. It provides a general overview of migration in Malta and then dives into specific themes: documentation, employment, citizenship, marriage, housing, asylum, and statelessness.

An interesting blend of human stories and technical observations, the Shadow Report marks a significant turning point for our own work with migrants and refugees.

Watch our video celebrating refugee voices!

Our project 2incING is all about strengthening and celebrating the voices of migrants and refugees. Why? Because, like everyone else, they are not passive subjects of our laws, our policies, our systems and our norms. They are active players in our communities who should have more control over their futures here in Malta. This video is all about celebrating their voices!

Our project tries to bring communities and Government closer together to talk, to listen, to engage and to commit to working together for a better place for all.

World Refugee Day 2023: How can Malta be more welcoming to refugees?

Malta Refugee Council statement on World Refugee Day 2023

Every year, World Refugee Day invites us to remember the men, women and children who were forced to flee their homes in search of safety. This year, to mark Malta’s forthcoming launch of its second National Integration Policy and Action Plan, the Malta Refugee Council wishes to urge Malta to develop a clear and inclusive pathway towards refugees being accepted and welcome.

Refugees who have settled here need better guidance on what it takes for them to be truly welcome in Malta. From the moment of their arrival, they are repeatedly told that Malta can never be their home. This harsh message follows them along their paths, where they are constantly subjects of criticism, discrimination and exclusion. After years of life in Malta and despite their best efforts, they remain on-lookers of Malta’s social and cultural life, burdened with the knowledge that Malta will never really be home.