When the government announced back in 2020 that it was planning to send out €100 vouchers after the pandemic, not everyone was impressed.

Days after the measure was announced, an EU national posted in the Facebook group Expats Malta that the vouchers would only be available to Maltese citizens, excluding non-Maltese residents who paid tax in Malta.

The post was widely shared and, hours later, the government changed its position, announcing it would also send the vouchers out to non-Maltese residents.

“Yes, we caused quite a big uproar on that one,” said Expats Malta administrator (‘admin’) Tom Erik Skjønsberg, pointing to the incident as one of the group’s biggest successes.

The 48-year-old Norwegian joined the group shortly before moving to Malta from the UK – where he was also a member of an expats Facebook group – around six-and-a-half years ago and became a page admin soon after.

He now lives in the south of Malta with his partner where he works as a customer experience manager for an online retail company based in the UK.

Since joining, he has seen the group balloon from 60,000 members to more than 145,000, many of whom are likely to be familiar with Skjønsberg’s comments and posts providing advice, links to news articles and, often, a dose of humour.

“Being the Scandinavian person I am, there’s a lot of sarcasm there... a bit of dark humour and trying to keep it at least a bit friendly – and let people speak their mind,” he said.

Asked about his role, he said it was not only to provide information but also to “set the tone”, explaining that group members “quite often follow the tone that they see from the admin team”.

While not the only admin in the group – it has three others, including its two founders – Skjønsberg describes himself as “the most active, the most visible one... I’m the one that’s quite outspoken”.

Explaining his “motivation is basically to help people”, Skjønsberg said this sometimes extended outside of the group to private messages and, in some cases, in-person meetings.

“I guess you could call it voluntary work; you help people who don’t necessarily know how things work with Identità, banks, the tax office. So, you give them a little bit of help.”

Despite his active role in the group, however, Skjønsberg said it does “not take up as much time as many people seem to think”, explaining he checks it on his phone when he can – either while on a break at work or when he has spare time at home.

‘A lot of complaints’

Describing the volume of complaints in the group as going “in waves” over the years, Skjønsberg said he was seeing “a lot of complaints” at the moment.

“As much as the Maltese might not want to hear it, there are a lot of things that could be improved in Malta. Then again, there are a lot of good things as well,” he said, adding he enjoyed life in Malta and intended to stay long term.

Noting that locals tended to “take it personally” when complaints were voiced, Skjønsberg stressed they should not: “There are problems in every single country, [and] we are not complaining just to complain about Malta; it’s because we want to see things improve.”

The prices for rentals have exploded and that’s causing issues for some people

He said that, while the issues raised over the years had remained “very much the same”, policy changes – especially those affecting third-country nations – had given rise to new complaints.

“The rental market has gone haywire in the years that I have been here; the prices for rentals have exploded and that’s causing issues for some people,” he said.

Meanwhile, with salary increases “nowhere close to being in line with price [increases]”, conversations on the topic were “a lot hotter now than they were six years ago”.

‘Racism has gotten worse’

But with the group being a platform for people to speak their mind, has that opened the door to racism?

“We do encounter it quite a bit, though it goes both ways; there are expats here who are quite racist towards the Maltese, and we don’t accept it either way,” he said, adding discrimination seemed to have worsened “in both camps”, however.

“Overcrowding tends to create a bit of frustration and anger and Malta does have an overcrowding issue, so that has gotten worse.”

Asked how he and the other admins balanced such concerns with freedom of speech, Skjønsberg explained that, while “the government can’t come after you for your thoughts and opinions, we are not required to give you a free platform”.

“You can say whatever you want on your own personal profile, [but] you can’t say absolutely everything you want on our platform. We have rules that you need to follow.”

‘Driving force for good’

Despite its name, Expats Malta now includes many Maltese among its members, something Skjønsberg thinks is a good thing: “From my standpoint, it’s a good thing to have local people there as well because they will have knowledge that us foreigners don’t.”

Would the admins consider changing the name to reflect its broader appeal?

“It’s had the same name since 2008, so I don’t see any reason to change it; it’s still focused on expats in Malta and that is still our main focus,” he said.

“I hope that we can continue to be a driving force because we do have some momentum... It [the group] does actually have some influence, so I would like to see that continue and used for good causes.”