As Muscat And Delia Clash Over Migration In Malta, What Impact Are Foreign Workers Actually Having On The Island?
Nobody bears the brunt of a nation’s problems quite like foreigners in Malta, whether it’s employment, stagnant wages, rising property prices, or crime. Last night was no different, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Leader of The Opposition Adrian Delia clashing over the issue in their lukewarm debate on TVM’s Xtra.
Delia and others have accused Muscat of wanting to create a classist society after he said he’d rather see foreigners carry out non-skilled jobs, crudely adding that he did not want “Maltese to be picking up rubbish from the streets” or “work in the sun”.
“Every job should be dignified, but I do not want a situation where the foreigner is comfortable and the Maltese are breaking their backs,” he said.
With the issues surrounding the country’s rapid economic growth and its effect on Maltese society consistently shifted to the foreign population, Lovin Malta took a look at figures to see what jobs foreigners are actually occupying.
How many foreign workers are there in Malta?
According to figures provided by JobsPlus, there are currently 52,746 foreigners working in Malta as of September 2018. 33,072 people are from another EU country, while 18,587 people are third-country nationals.
With the current employment-population standing at roughly 240,000, foreign workers make up just under a quarter of the island’s total workforce.
Most third-country nationals come from the Philippines (3,411), Serbia (3,383) and India (1,950). Most Filipinos work within the administrative and support industries or healthcare.
When it comes to EU nationals, Italians top the list, with 9,229 workers in the country, who actually are spread across more or less equally across a number of different industries, from the professional work to manual labour. The same applies to British nationals (5,160), while Bulgarians (2,567) mostly work within accommodation & food service activities
Are foreigners actually just ‘picking up rubbish’?
Third country nationals mostly occupy three spheres of industry. While predominantly working in administrative and support services (4,099), third-country nationals also have a strong workforce in health and social care (2,125) and construction (2,064).
With regards to the health and social care, third-country nationals actually make up the overwhelming majority of foreign workers in the sector.
On the other hand, EU nationals mostly worked in what could be considered the higher-earning spheres of the arts or entertainment (5,768), hospitality (5,002), or in the professional, technical, or scientific sphere (3,888).
Notably, when it came to the financial and insurance sector (which most likely requires a much higher skill set), EU workers made up just under 85% of all foreign employees in the sector.
Are foreigners behind stagnant wages, or are we misdirecting anger?
This presents a puzzling debate, with foreigners often criticised for being behind the stagnant wages in the country due to their accepting lower salaries. However, with Maltese people predominately working either with the state or in trade, transport, or food – both sectors not dominated by foreign workers – this theory begins to slowly lose water.
Construction, an industry often criticised for employing people on low wages, makes up just 6% of the total working population. So why are people within a tourism economy with strong pillars in financial and gaming sectors struggling to make ends meet?
Maybe the questions and debate surrounding the issue would actually be better directed if Maltese people asked what our elected officials are doing to solve our problems, rather than consistently pointing the blame at outsiders.
The effect the influx on foreign workers has had on the rental market in particular is clear, with prices severely inflating over the last few years. Meanwhile, the sales market may just be starting to feel its effects, as developers seek to build projects that cater for the ‘to let’ clientele.
What do you make of these statistics?
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