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Hi all,

the issue of racial discrimination is certainly interesting in view of several ongoing discussions , for example the new bus fare tarifs and others.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality is an independent, government funded body to deal with the question of society free from discrimination hmmm can that be independent ? Well, whatever .....

My question would be : Why is this urgent research being initiated at the moment and what is the reason ? Does someone really think that foreigners are being discriminated against in Malta -))) Hard to believe as we are all citizens of the EU .

Regards
Ricky

Hi Ricky - thanks for your comment...unfortunately, yes, it seems that individuals from minority racial groups, whether from the EU or otherwise, may be subject to unfavourable treatment - the purpose of this study is to have a clearer picture of the nature and extent of such unfavourable treatment (if any - this has to emerge from the study itself)- in order to be able to develop concrete recommendations for the development of measures aimed at facilitating inclusion for all...

Will you be conducting interviews face-to-face or by telephone ? If the former, are you conducting interviews in Gozo ?

Is your focus on interviewing Maltese or foreigners ?

the focus is on individuals from racial minority groups, whether they are Maltese citizens or otherwise, but ideally would have resided in malta for a period of time and not just visiting for a short period - the interviews are to be held ideally face to face in Malta - however if you know of anybody who fits the criteria kindly let us know and we'll try to work around it... thanks for your interest !

"the focus is on individuals from racial minority groups" - that begs the question, what racial group do you consider the majority to be ? Without knowing that, I'm not sure if you consider me to be part of a racial minority or not - do you mean non-Maltese ?  non-white ? non-Mediterranean ? or non Christian ?

Non Christian? - since when are religious beliefs equated to race?

Also considering the Chinese and Indian population sizes, should Caucasians/white people?/pinkishwhitishyellowbrownishtanned (or whats the politically correct word nowadays?) also be considered a minority?

How exciting!

I would like to know who the rlepre considers as racial minority groups, maybe I can participate too

Myrkur wrote:

Non Christian? - since when are religious beliefs equated to race?

I agree, but you will find plenty of Maltese who think

white = christian
arab "looking" = muslim

the irony of course is that to northern Europeans, many Maltese look as much arabic as white....

haha that's so true. A friend of mine who is married to a Maltese man is afraid to take him to Moscow in case some neo nazis mistake him for an arab and attack them. Sad but true.

I find the Maltese are no different to other Mediterranean people ie Spaniards , Cypriots  and Italians.

Based on the immense majority of Italian surnames it seems that many Maltese have Italian blood. However I did read that the Maltese DNA is dominantly Phoenician -then again their closest relatives would be the  Middle Eastern Lebanese who physically are far from  having the dark  contours of North African people one may associate as 'arabs'.

Sorry for the digression.Just my thoughts

Ms Lepre,  possibly you can approach members individually by nationality. Hope this helps