We all know the story: immigrants are stealing our jobs. They come over here and then invite their friends and family too. Ten people live in a two-bedroom flat. People born and bred in Malta lose their jobs to immigrants who will work through their breaks for less money. I have heard this story so many times throughout my life. However, it is the wrong story.

Firstly, and let me get this out of the way; there is no set number of jobs available in any one geographical area and once they are taken, that's it. I am not an economist, but I do know this: an immigrant taking a job in Malta does not necessarily mean there are fewer jobs for the natives. When immigrants or anybody else has a job, they tend to spend more money on goods, which means the people producing those goods need to produce yet more goods. Producing more goods means there is a need to hire more people, and so on, in a positive upwards cycle. Therefore, to say immigrants are stealing jobs is just not true.

Let us say it is true that immigrants are working longer or harder for less pay, which means they are getting the jobs and you aren't. I know that this does happen, and it does put you in a difficult position. Should you also work harder and longer so that you can compete? Some people say you should. Some people say you have to play by the rules and work the system to get ahead. If somebody is working longer and harder and s/he got that job, you have to work even longer and harder to get it back from him or her. I will not say that though - why should you have to do that? I do not want anybody to abandon hard-won rights to take breaks, to be paid a living wage, and have better working conditions, just to compete with immigrants. You shouldn't have to work under harsh conditions, and neither should they. So do not fight for a system in which you are not competing for low paid labour.

We live in a world where we put profits before people. Because if we are not careful, we will start a race to the bottom where individual workers compete to be the one that asks employers for the least amount of compensation for the most amount of work. You are angry with an immigrant because s/he took your job. There really isn't a competition for work when jobs create more jobs. What you are really angry about is that an individual who feels s/he has to accept those poor working conditions in order to keep that job, something you are unwilling to do yourself. Good. Don't accept it. Instead of being angry with the immigrants for working, get angry at the businesses that are exploiting them. Get angry that they care more about making a profit than the people that make them that profit. Shouldn't you, and the immigrants working under such terrible conditions, be making a case for better treatment?

Shouldn't there be legislation that stops such exploitation of workers? If it doesn't exist, why hasn't the government made it? The government is supposed to be there to serve you: get angry at it for not introducing legislation to protect you. There are plenty of things the government can do to make sure you get a better deal: make businesses pay a living wage; enforce breaks; have a cap on the number of working hours per week; make sure that nobody works a certain number of hours in one block. Shouldn't you, and the immigrants working under such terrible conditions, be lobbying the government to introduce them?

If the government has introduced such legislation, why are they not enforcing it? The point of government is not only to make laws but also to enforce them so that you, the electorate, do not suffer from bad living and working conditions. Instead of being angry with a person who wants to work, be angry at the entity that is supposed to protect the worker. Again, shouldn't you, and the immigrants working under such terrible conditions, be protesting at the lack of enforcement?

An immigrant working under poor conditions is one person in a system that is totally wrong. We shouldn't have to compete with our neighbours for how little we are willing to be compensated. So instead of being angry with them, why don't you get angry at the system that produced this mess in the first place?