It has been said that as a result of the corona virus pandemic, “thousands” of foreign workers left or will be leaving Malta, mostly because they lost their job.

It would be appropriate if publicly an account is given of who these people were. Obviously the idea is not to publish their names but to come to an understanding as to where the economy has been losing workers given their departure. Has it been in sectors where technical skills are required or in areas where skills are minimal?

In recent years, the Maltese economy developed also because of the inputs contributed by foreign workers. It was never so clear how many of these were employed in the infrastructure or in essential productive facilities.

It would now be useful to have this information at least about those who have left.

To be clear – the complaints I have heard up to now about the departure of such people covered catering and hotel establishments, mainly in jobs for which little training is necessary. Which does not mean this was the case all over.

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IMMIGRATION POLICY

I find the calls which are sometimes made for Malta to have one policy about “irregular” migration rather confusing As far as I know, we do have such a policy. The two main parties agree to it. It is normal though that then, when incidents arise, the two sides consider how to trip each other up.

The real point is that the general lines regarding how, as a country, we should deal with the issue are shared. Not least the point that we expect full backing from the EU when immigrants who reach our shores are to be resettled among other Union member states. That backing is not available.

Because of this, no matter how the political and social forces of this country come to an agreement among themselves, the problem will remain unresolved. This cannot be done from the Malta end.

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NEGATIVE FACTOR

The ways by which different countries will be economically affected by the corona virus crisis are hardly going to be the same. Which means that countries which up to now have done relatively well, could be most drastically affected by the economic reflux.

For instance, what could be a negative factor is the very size of a country, especially if it happens to depend a lot on tourism. For as long as the sector takes time to recover, the need will be to wait till travellers restore their appetite for foreign travel.

To  a certain extent, some countries can wait out this time by promoting internal tourism. That’s what they are doing, Malta included, and rightly so. But consider what resources a country like Germany can rely on to sustain in this way the tourism it enjoyed previously; and compare them to Malta’s. Given its small size, our economy can hardly keep up an equivalent effort. Small size functions as a negative factor in such a context and should be due for compensation. I doubt whether this consideration will be taken on board.