In January, a crucial second step in strengthening Malta's labour market was taken with the publication of the Malta Integration Strategy and Action Plan 2025-2030.

For any worker, the regulation of the labour market, specifically by monitoring the influx of non-EU nationals and the sectors they are employed in, matters. It ensures that certain employers are not exploiting foreign workers with little social agency and poor skills, to sustain a business model that depends exclusively on basic, minimum working conditions - one that is ultimately detrimental in terms of wage growth, but also because it creates a class of alienated workers.

Now, we are entering into a public consultation on a new comprehensive framework for integrating migrants into Maltese society. No workforce can be truly united and reap the benefits of our increased living standards, unless there is cohesion and inclusion between all groups of workers.

The GWU is acknowledging the evolving landscape of the Maltese economy, having stated time and again that migrant workers have a significant role in our society. Migrant workers, which include EU nationals, but also non-EU nationals mostly found in lower-paid occupations, represent nearly one-fourth of the population.

So it is welcome that the introduction of a second Malta Integration Strategy (the first, I-Belong was launched in 2018), complements the Labour Migration Policy (LMP).

Firstly, both policies recognise an imperative to address the needs of the labour market. It is no secret that Malta's economic growth and in turn, our raised standards of living, are reliant on migrant labour. While the LMP focuses on the regulation of workers depending on specific sectoral demands, the Integration Strategy ensures these workers can successfully integrate into Maltese society, and this also means contributing effectively to the economy.

So while it is important that we align labour migration to the market's needs, we must ensure these workers are well-equipped to participate in the workforce through training programmes - otherwise, we risk creating a group of alienated workers valued only insofar as they render a service or pay their rent.

Indeed, the Integration Strategy emphasises this two-way integration process, welcoming migrants as active participants in Malta's social fabric.

A corollary to this is the LMP's proposal that non-EU workers attend pre-departure integration courses before arriving in Malta, ensuring migrants understand Maltese culture and their rights and responsibilities - these should be mandatory.

Training programmes that can upskill migrant workers, a benefit that improves the lives of many a worker in Malta, would help these members of the workforce integrate better into Maltese society and the labour market.

Naturally both policies aim to protect migrant workers' rights - the GWU has been at the forefront in calling for the guarantee of fundamental human rights for these workers who, often lacking social agency, end up being exploited by low-paying employers. The union will back the LMP's call to ensure fair wages, decent working conditions, and compliance with Maltese labour rules.

Again, key to ensuring a quality workforce is to improve retention rates. Many platform-work services that could afford to keep prices excessively low, were bolstered by an uninterrupted supply of low-skilled migrants - this reality effectively kept the cost of labour to an absolute minimum. But by creating better working conditions, and opportunities for career development, migrant workers can strive towards the same goals as the rest of the workforce.

Ultimately, as always pointed out by the GWU, any labour migration policy must address the problem of exploitation of migrant workers, abuse that affects both migrant and local workers. And the Union will also play its part, to promote mutual understanding of the benefits of integration, and to champion the upskilling and training of non-EU nationals, so that all individuals, regardless of background, can fully participate and contribute to the Maltese socio-economic fabric.

Josef Bugeja is GWU Secretary-General