The attitudes of students and teachers towards irregular immigration : can education make a change?

Abstract

A number of asylum seekers are arriving in Malta every year, fleeing situations in their homeland such as wars, lack of human rights and fear of persecution. Once they reach a host country, irregular immigrants are yet again faced with another problem - that of integration. This research was carried out in order to study the attitudes of students and teachers towards irregular immigration. The study also investigates the suitability of proposed educational plans in inspiring humanitarian attitudes as regards the issue. A group of Form 2 students, their teachers and members of the administration took part in the research, which involved answering a preliminary questionnaire, attending a purposely-organised seminar on irregular immigration and then answering another similar questionnaire. Thus, the influence of the seminar could be studied by comparison of the initial and final replies. Results indicate that education on irregular immigration can bring about a change in attitudes, especially in students. The results also shed light on the importance of integration of irregular immigrants into the educational system since much of the learning occurred through direct interaction of the subjects with the refugee speaker. In view of the results, some recommendations have been elicited.