“The problem is that in recent years, we focused only on money and profit. The problem is the lack of long-term thinking and planning. Because it’s not just about echoing the mantra of economic growth like parrots, but then we encounter other problems that have been accumulating over these recent years.”

“Not only has the population increased, but you don’t consider the impact this will have on the country, including environmental and social impacts!”

“Did we think about infrastructure? Did we think about integration programs? Did we think about the language? Did we think about the economic status of these people and their wages? Did we think about the working conditions? Did we think about the mental health of immigrants and refugees who have been through unknown hardships? Did we think of these human beings like ourselves? No.”

“Because we only thought about how to use and exploit them. We only wanted them to clean the streets and build roads and flyovers even during a heatwave. We only wanted them to build the blocks and towers that we dream of in our high-rises. We only wanted them to collect the garbage and run behind the garbage truck, in sun and rain. We only wanted them to ride bicycles and mop the streets with a box on their backs, serving us Indian food or Sushi. We only wanted them because we needed cleaners and carers in the homes for the elderly and in the hospitals.”

“When it comes to foreigners, we only want them for work, so we can pay them peanuts and socially exclude them and treat them like slaves. Ghettos are created. Crime increases. Especially when there is a large concentration of men in one area, like in Buġibba and Qawra.”

“A congregation of people who do the worst jobs, in the worst conditions, and have to live with six people in a single bedded room.

“When people are not treated as human beings, but rather as disposable objects, then this is what happens.”

Do you agree with this theory?