NSO statistics in Malta showed that our locality, St Paul’s Bay, is the area with the highest number of foreigners. NSO statistics from 2024 indicated that our locality had 36,000 residents 14,311 of whom were Maltese, while the remaining 21,702, or 60%, were foreign. A number of these foreigners were young people like us, whom we met regularly at schools, playfields, beaches, in the streets, and in various other places. As a group of young people attending the local band club, we form part of a community made up of young people coming from various countries, including Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Nepal, India, Sweden, Italy, the Philippines, and of course, Malta. Over the years, we worked together as a team, supporting one another in our journey of learning musical instruments. The friendship that we developed over the years grew from our teenage years, and we became more like a family. While our primary aim is to learn musical instruments, our meetings at the local band club went far beyond that. We spend a considerable amount of our free time there, organising and taking part in social activities together. We also regularly participate in different workshops not related to music, facilitated by our youth leader. Lately, our discussions focused a lot on the fact that our community has the largest number of foreign residents in Malta and how we felt that not enough was being done to help people from different communities integrate. We noticed that while we, as a group, got along well, the same could not be said for other young people and adults in our community who did not have the opportunity to meet and work together as we did. Data from Politico in 2023 showed that among those aged 15–24, negative attitudes towards immigration from outside the EU rose from 32% in 2019 to 35% in 2023, while negative attitudes among those aged 25–34 increased from 38% to 42%. Voting patterns from the last European Parliament election confirmed this shift, with young people being among the biggest supporters of far-right parties. This showed that youth were viewing migration as a major issue and that migrants, especially third-country nationals, were increasingly being seen as a threat. As a group, we struggled to understand why youth like us felt threatened by migration. We carried out research to try to understand the reasons behind this rise in hostility towards migrants. Thanks to our members, we managed to gather data from 10 other European countries. The following were some of the most common fears expressed about migration: Jobs: Several young people felt that migrants were coming to take away their jobs, potentially leaving them unemployed. Housing Affordability: It was recognised that housing prices had increased over the last decade. Many youth believed that the rise in apartment and house prices was linked to the growing demand for accommodation caused by migration. Loss of Identity: A number of young people expressed fears about losing their national or cultural identity due to the large influx of migrants. Threat to Security: Some youth shared concerns that migrants might pose a threat to their community’s safety. Fear of the Unknown: Many youth admitted that they had never interacted with migrants and, as a result, feared them simply because they did not know who they were or what they represented. In their book Who Is Afraid of Migration?, Volpicelli and Stefano (2015) argue that most fears surrounding migration stem from misinformation, often amplified by the media and certain politicians. They emphasise that the best way to counter such misconceptions is to create opportunities for people to meet and interact. This is exactly what we have been doing successfully in our band club. Thus, as a group of young people, we decided that we wanted to take action and help promote integration through the universal language of music. The main aim of our project The main aim of our project was to learn how to foster social inclusion, intercultural understanding, and mutual respect among young people from diverse backgrounds through music. By engaging participants in collaborative musical activities, the project sought to break down cultural, linguistic, and social barriers while promoting empathy and cooperation. The objectives were: To understand better migration and the inclusion processes that migrants experience. To promote social inclusion by creating an environment where everyone feels valued, regardless of their cultural or social background. To raise awareness of the power of music for social change, particularly in promoting social inclusion. To learn how to foster intercultural dialogue and understanding.