With 17.5% of the population not born in the Maltese Islands (Eurostat 2018), Malta is one of the most multicultural countries in the EU. This has led to a wide diversity of worldviews living side by side.
In such a pluralistic society, professionals working in the fields of education, health and social work need to understand the requirements of migrants stemming from their worldviews. Likewise, there is a felt desire among Third Country Nationals (TCNs) and migrants to understand the prevalent values and belief systems in their host country. These needs are being researched and addressed by a research team led by Prof. Adrian-Mario Gellel, a resident academic within the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Theology.
After conducting a thorough literature review about migration trends, different faith communities and policies in Malta, the research team is now conducting focus groups with professionals within the Health, Education and Social Work sectors as well as with Third Country Nationals in order to understand the main difficulties, queries and anxieties which each group encounters.
This two-year project aims to provide a series of 8-hour educational sessions, develop a handbook and a digital application intended to give essential information about the beliefs, customs, religious etiquette and practices of the various worldviews currently found in Malta. The project aims to directly reach 100 TCNs and another 300 professionals in the health, social work and educational sectors as well as a wide audience through the dissemination of the cultural orientation tool.
This project is conducted in collaboration with the Inter-Religious Commission of the Catholic Church as well as the Malta Ecumenical Council and with the support of a number of local faith communities. It is co-financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Funds of the European Union.
