A Comparative Study of Malta from the Perspective of Catholicism, Xenophobia, Immigration and International Relations

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am most thankful to my family colleagues and instructor for providing me assistance and guidance throughout the tenure of this research project. this research would not have been completed without their undue support.

DECLARATION

I declare that this study has not been published previously and represents my own work based on the secondary and the primary research analysis.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to understand religious tolerance, xenophobia and racism from the perspective of Malta in comparison to other European micro nations. Since the nature of this topic is descriptive, a secondary research analysis was conducted analyzing the data on Malta, Andorra, Vatican City and Monaco. It was found that Malta has been seeing an influx of immigrants which is the main reason of Xenophobia in the society. Despite the anti racist laws, there is much needed to be done to encourage acceptance of other minority and ethnic groups in Malta. On the other hand, fewer cases of religious or ethnic abuse and xenophobia have been reported in Andorra, Vatican City and Monaco. Vatican is a nationalist which is often misunderstood with racism, Monaco is moderately racist especially against the African immigrants and Andorra has not enacted any law against racism, religious intolerance or Xenophobia. The situation of Malta and Andorra calls for an attention towards the implementation of anti racism laws and encouragement towards embracing other ethnicities, religions and races.

A Comparative Analysis on the Effects of Catholicism on Malta to other Micro States

Racism in Small Countries

In the new millennium, Europe is seeing an alarming resurgence in racial hatred and Xenophobia. The inter press service shows the rise of the neo Nazism in 2000 in Europe and advices that far from being a firing activity, violence, racism and neo nationals have turned out to be normal in some communities (Tarman, Sears, 2005,731-761). The issues need to be taken care of soon, in schools and with the help of the social programs. Various cultures and the ethnic minorities in a country can usually be used as a scapegoat for many during the times of economic crisis; this is one of the reasons why Nazism became very popular. In 2002, in France, the success of the far right political group Le Pen in the run for leadership position resulted in a huge shockwave across Europe about how easy it was for the right parties to get close to getting power if there is complacency in the democratic process is brought down. In different places across Europe in 2002, there has been an increase in the racist attacks against both Jews and Arabs in the context of the increasing hostilities in the Middle East. There have been attempts to deal with the rise in undocumented immigrants in Italy from Tunisia and the attitude from the right wing have been labeled by some as being openly racists (Tarman, Sears, 2005,731-761).

The small countries of Europe experience the prejudicial and discriminatory ...