“There are simply not enough people on the island,” a certain economist and JobsPlus chairman by the name of Clyde Caruana announced on February 12, 2018. That genius is now our minister for finance and employment.
Just five short years ago, Caruana was selling the country the fiction that Malta would come to an end unless we brought in foreign nationals by the tens of thousands. According to Caruana, we had to employ foreign nationals because “really and truly we do not have any other choice”. “Employment of foreign nationals is essential to maintain economic growth,” he insisted.
Caruana’s strategy resulted in a national infrastructural meltdown. Caruana estimated in 2018 that “the island could be looking at an increase of 28,000 to 30,000 foreign nationals in the next four years”. Instead, that number increased by 54,970 – almost double what Caruana predicted.
In four years, the number of foreign workers exploded from 42,000 to 96,970. Caruana got his numbers completely wrong. In 2022 alone, Malta issued 38,000 new residence permits – that’s a 160 per cent increase over the previous year. That’s more than what Caruana predicted would come in four full years.
Yes, those tens of thousands of foreign workers contribute to the economy, increase State revenue in taxes and national insurance, provide health and social care and other services. But they also need places to live in, they use public transport and our road network, they resort to public hospitals when they fall ill and they use vital services such as water and electricity.
Clearly, Labour didn’t plan for that massive sudden explosion in the population. Caruana’s 2018 predictions were completely wrong. And vital infrastructure, such as water and electricity, takes years to develop. So, nobody ought to be surprised that our electricity grid blew up. That outdated, tired infrastructure was expected to cater for tens of thousands of additional people on the island who not even Labour’s guru, Caruana, had the foggiest idea would reach such huge proportions.
A total of 54,970 additional foreign workers since 2018 would be a massive number even for much larger European countries. For a tiny country like Malta, those additional foreign workers constitute over 10 per cent of the entire population. That’s equivalent to the entire population growth in 20 years – between 1990 and 2010.
Labour has completely lost control of immigration into the country. And it isn’t because of EU membership or illegal migrants. The vast majority of foreign workers coming to Malta since 2018 are third-country nationals who are legally here. Only one-third are from EU countries. The remaining 63 per cent come from India, the Philippines, Nepal, Pakistan, Albania, Macedonia, Turkey and other countries.
In 2022, Malta issued 38,000 new residence permits – a 160% increase over the previous year
That’s completely different from the situation in 2018. Out of 42,000 foreign nationals working in Malta then, 30,000 (71 per cent) came from the EU. Only 12,000 (28.6 per cent) came from other countries. Since Caruana’s wild predictions, that proportion shot up to 63 per cent.
Many of those third-country nationals are exploited, made to pay huge sums of money to come to Malta and are then paid miserable salaries and constrained to live in overcrowded apartments, often sharing rooms and occasionally even beds.
Caruana bragged in 2018 that “JobsPlus is currently pursuing employing third-country nationals and only this week e-mails are being sent to non-EU countries seeking to attract employees to Malta”. We know exactly who’s to blame for the disruptive and uncontrolled influx of third-country nationals into this country. Caruana was the man who actively recruited them on the pretext that “employment of foreign nationals is essential”.
What is puzzling is that, despite bringing 96,970 foreign workers to “grow the economy”, our national debt has grown exponentially. You’d have thought the massive increase in workers would lead to a proportionally massive increase in national earnings. You would have imagined that the country would have cut down its national debt dramatically. Or else it could have invested in its basic infrastructure.
So, what does Caruana and his Labour government have to show for their mad rush to import foreign workers? The country’s debt has shot up since he’s been minister and the man who chose him, Robert Abela, prime minister. No other prime minister-finance minister combo has managed to drive up that national debt so astronomically in such a short space of time.
Caruana certainly hasn’t spent that money on the electricity grid as everybody’s personal experience can attest to. The hundreds of millions that were squandered on the fraudulent Vitals deal have left the country with a health service that is bursting at the seams. Elective operations are halted at the slightest peak in hospital admissions – whether because of seasonal flu or summer heatwaves. Even rubbish collection is in such a mess that people’s refuse collects in the streets, attracting rats and contributing to the depressing neglect.
The people’s quality of life has certainly not improved. The country has been reduced to a stinking overcrowded mess with constant traffic jams, polluted air, perennial construction, dug-up roads and repeated blackouts in the middle of a heatwave. For those who’ve raked hundreds of thousands of euros off the State to afford a luxury yacht, escape is easy. For the rest, they’re left to savour the squalor and seethe in rage.
Meanwhile, the cost of property has shot up. Renting even the smallest of apartments costs more than half a basic salary. Couples compete with tens of foreign workers for the same flat. And the couples are inevitably priced out. That one-bedroomed flat will yield the landlord far more profit when rented to 10 third-country nationals then to a young Maltese couple. That couple certainly can’t afford to pay as much. As for single persons, they can forget it. Their chances of affording rent is even slimmer.
The only reason why homelessness hasn’t exploded is because younger people simply remain at their parents’ home. The mean age at which young adults leave the parental home has steadily risen.
“And what about Malta’s physical constraints,” Caruana was asked in 2018. “I believe there is still some room left,” he replied.
Didn’t his boss repeatedly say that Malta’s full up?
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.