The Introduction of Policies, Structures and Practices to address Migration: the case of Malta

• In Event: Education, Immigration, and (Im)mobility in a Global Context: Policy, Leadership, and Institutional Responses

Abstract

Every year thousands of people attempt to escape from existing conflicts, repression and instability in their home country to cross from the African continent and make the treacherous crossing across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Hundreds end up on the island of Malta. Questions are constantly being raised as to how European countries in general, and the European Union in particular, are addressing the issues raised by migration. One critical issue is how countries are dealing with migration and, more importantly what countries are doing to assimilate and integrate migrants into their societies. Top on our country’s agenda is education provision. As we have argued in a previous paper the need to address the educational development of migrant learners calls for contextualised school leadership processes aimed at spurring teachers to hone the cultural capital brought by migrant learners in their classrooms. The authors argue in favour of culturally responsive leadership processes which a) endorse schools as influential on society and community development, b) detach from a ‘one size fits all philosophy’ of leadership, c) embrace the cultural capital of migrant students, d) introduce changes in leadership styles to include different cultural philosophies, e) successfully transmit to teachers that learning cannot be placed in a monocultural context, and f) advocate towards the employment of teachers whose culture reflects the cultural composition of students in their school. This paper aims to explore what Malta is doing to address this mammoth task in a context fraught with uncertainty and anxiety. Emphasis is placed on the role that the new Strategy for Education 2024-2030 (MEYR, 2023) has towards the deployment of resources and the enactment of policies that would bring about critical but necessary changes

Authors

• Christopher Bezzina, University of Malta

• Brian Vassallo, University of Malta