They’re taking our jobs… but do we really want those jobs anyway?

It was only last April that Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli told an international conference on the integration of migrants and employment that "precarious employment conditions cannot ever lead to successful integration", adding that "integration either brings one into mainstream society, or it fails". 

It is perhaps too early to say if local efforts to integrate asylum seekers have 'failed', according to the criteria laid down by Minister Dalli. But judging only by the large number of mostly African asylum seekers who congregate at the Marsa roundabout at around 7 each morning - hoping to be picked up for a day's unregistered labour at any of a number of worksites on the island - the prospects for successful integration do not look very good.

Reports that local industry regularly hires such workers without offering them any benefits - and at times blatantly abusing of their vulnerability to deny them even the most basic employees' rights - have been rife ever since the phenomenon of irregular immigration began in earnest around 15 years ago.

Yet it proves difficult to quantify the full extent of the problem, harder still to extrapolate what benefit - if any - may be enjoyed by the country as a whole by regularising what seems to be a vast illegal workforce currently operating 'underground'.

In some cases the phenomenon is fully visible to all who care to look, even if, at a glance, one would be hard pressed to distinguish which of the many foreigners now seen daily on the back of refuse collection trucks are in fact covered by a work permit issued by the Employment & Training Corporation, and which are illegally employed. The question is just as relevant to other large-scale employment areas that are rumoured to now rely quite extensively on foreign employees of dubious legal status: namely, the construction and leisure and hospitality sectors.

Michael Falzon, president of the Malta Developers' Association, acknowledges that illegal employment of unregistered migrants is 'business as usual' for many companies, but he admits that the issue has never been discussed internally by the MDA and that he would only comment in a personal capacity.

"From my experience there is hardly a construction company that employs more than four or five workers that doesn't utilise foreign workers. There are some jobs the Maltese don't want to do any more, and employers find themselves hiring foreigners instead..."

Falzon adds that although many of these precariously employed workers are in fact asylum seekers from Africa, these do not account for the full spectrum of clandestine employment in the industry.

"There is more than one type of 'illegal immigrant' in Malta. People who entered the country through perfectly regular channels, but who overstayed their three-month visa. These are also illegal, and many of them are from Eastern Europe..."

Speaking specifically about the construction sector, Falzon dismisses popular perceptions that foreigners illegally employed under these circumstances undercut salaries for Maltese workers. "In the construction industry there are jobs which require certain skills and others that don't. The latter category, which is where these people tend to find work, will be on the minimum wage, and employers cannot realistically undercut the minimum wage for Maltese workers without being caught."

Rather than collectively affecting conditions of employment for others, Falzon argues that these illegally employed workers are themselves at risk of abuse and exploitation.

"Without a clear policy on regularising this workforce, and getting them to make tax and national insurance contributions, government will be allowing employers to exploit vulnerable workers. Personally I think it makes more sense to regularise these people's situation so that they contribute to the economy."

The situation in the hospitality sector is harder to gauge. Tony Zahra, president of the Malta hotels and Restaurants Association, seemed to minimise the issue in comments to MaltaToday.

"We are not sure what you mean by the term migrant workers", he replied when asked whether the industry has become reliant on migrant workers. "If by this you mean EU nationals that are working in Malta, then we would agree that there are EU nationals working in Malta, especially during the summer period. However if by the term migrant you are meaning irregular migrant workers, then we do not believe that there any significant numbers working in our industry."

Zahra added that hotels are today experiencing the effects of globalisation: "And whereas the word 'rely' is probably not the right one to describe the current situation of the hospitality and leisure industry in Malta, non-Maltese employees are playing an important role. It is however important to stress that these employees cannot and shouldn't be defined by default as being irregular migrants."

Different opinions have however been expressed lower down the chain of command. In comments on a local blog, one hotelier described the situation as follows: "As an employer in the hospitality industry I can assure you that were it not for third-country nationals such as sub-Saharan Africans and Eastern Europeans, our hotels and restaurants would come to a standstill. Maltese do not want to clean toilets and wash dishes. I would even go as far to say that they do not even want to wait tables. In my direct experience all they want to do is get a signature that they have attended a job interview and continue receiving their relief pay cheque... whilst third country nationals slave away for minimum wage."

Asked to comment specifically on this viewpoint, Zahra said: "We are not aware of what this hotelier said on social media; however the policy of MHRA is that all our members are to abide by all national laws, including of course the employment laws. We have not been approached by anyone in the recent past asking for the association to intervene in lowering the conditions of the industry employees. Consequently we feel that all our members can and should abide by the current employment laws."