Should Malta be considering a population cap, asked Times of Malta (August 28). In fact, Malta is already implementing a population cap since the exorbitant increases in the cost of rent or purchase of property dampens the motivation to relocate here to all but the desperate or deep-pocketed. This explains the growing split in income inequality in the country.

On one hand, well-heeled foreigners engaged in well-paying jobs and living in comfortable accommodation; on the other hand, the ‘gig economy’ precariat, sharing rooms in frugal conditions.

Meanwhile, we confirm the alarming trends of the Maltese-born to forego having children and of our youth to seriously consider settling abroad. We increasingly need foreign workers to work for us and to maintain our generous welfare state. We would edge close to a gerontological society without them.

Rather than look at dangerous and dubious suggestions about “population caps” and “carrying capacity” estimates, it makes more sense to plan for an expanding population.

We have to admit that Malta has hit upon an economic model that has spawned a job bonanza. (And, put differently, we have created a consumer society where it is tough to survive unless in dual-adult-earner households.)

A record 81 out of every 100 Maltese aged 20-64 are in the labour market while 100,000 Maltese women of working age have flocked to the job market in less than three decades. The labour force has doubled since 1992. Even so-called ‘full-time students’ with maintenance grants have part-time or full-time jobs.

A diversified economy, solid educational foundations and prudent, stable politics have nurtured economic stability across successive governments. A knack for grasping opportunities has led to various clusters: aircraft maintenance; online gaming; aquaculture; dive tourism; and conference tourism.

Our higher educational institutions – UM, MCAST, ITS, others – churn out some 4,000 graduates annually, most of whom assume local professional careers. The unemployment rate is stable at around three per cent. Employers complain of staff shortages.

With such an economy ‘on heat’ and a reasonably safe country, no wonder more immigrants are considering moving to Malta. And more employers have no choice or qualms but to accept them.

Malta must prepare for a scenario that envisages a population of close to 700,000 by the end of this century. I am not trying to dramatise. This is a figure based on a prudent extrapolation of recent trends.

The implications of such a statement are staggering. Investments in farming and fishing are needed to improve our food security and bolster our ‘blue economy’.

A mass rapid-transit system – metro/monorail – is necessary to smoothen transport connectivity (and including an undersea connection to Gozo).

A high population density is the bitter-sweet result of Malta’s economic success- Godfrey Baldacchino

A new-fangled structure plan, safeguarded by the constitution, needs to unequivocally designate building and conservation zones while taking stock of the real implications of sea-level rise and climate change.

That part of Hurd’s Bank that lies within Malta’s territorial sea would become a site for extensive land reclamation. More (and preferably green-energy) installations for generating fresh water and electricity would need to be commissioned.

Educational programmes in high value-added sectors – including artificial intelligence, maritime law, quantum computing, green energy and decarbonisation technologies – will help to lift Malta’s dismal worker productivity rates.

We need a national language policy to designate and protect the use of the Maltese language; including – I would suggest – an obligation to master the rudiments of the language (apart from English) in order to acquire Maltese citizenship.

We need long-term plans to cater for more classrooms, hospital beds, air conditioners and such. Luxembourg would return to being the smallest member State of the European Union.

Malta is not alone in this journey. We need to monitor other small States that find themselves in a similar predicament.

The four small Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, as well as the ‘Asian tiger’ of Singapore, make apt examples. In all five jurisdictions (two of which are island States), residents who are not citizens now comprise almost half the population. We need to commission serious research to study what these countries are doing and with what results and consequences.

A high population density is the bittersweet result of Malta’s economic success. We spent centuries living with the malaise of out-migration and the self-imposed exile of thousands – also abetted by Maltese governments – who had to leave Malta for good.

We have now spent a few decades experiencing what it is like to be a labour-importing economy. We still seem to be in shock, living in a state of disbelief, as il-barranin increasingly diversify more local sectors. The Malta civil service may be the last local institution to welcome naturalised Maltese into its ranks.

Godfrey Baldacchino

Pluri-culturality is everywhere. And it is not going away.

Godfrey Baldacchino is professor of sociology at the University of Malta and a specialist in island and small State studies. godfrey.baldacchino@um.edu.mt.