This series is about third-country nationals who come to Malta legally to work.  They are recruited, vetted and licensed to fill jobs our economy needs.  An earlier article examined the first barrier they face: changing employers.  The last examined the risk of poverty.  This article looks at 2 more: the right to stay on secure terms and the right to live with their family.  Let's start with the right to stay.  Directive 2003/109 has provided for long-term resident status for more than 20 years.  After 5 years of lawful residence, a third-country national can gain greater security and near-equal treatment.  The purpose is simple: people who have settled and contributed should not remain dependent on annually renewed permits.

Malta sets additional conditions. Applicants need 5 years of continuous residence and income of at least the national minimum wage, plus 20% for each family member. They must pass a Maltese language examination at 65% and a cultural examination at 75%, and complete at least 100 hours of coursework. The certificate expires after 12 months.  Consider a carer working shifts and earning close to the minimum wage.  They must find time for 100 classroom hours and pass 2 examinations to secure long-term status after 5 years of residence. The route has since become harder.  In June 2026, the directorate stopped providing the preparatory courses and directed applicants elsewhere.  The certificate still expires after 12 months.

The outcome is predictable.  In 2019, only 5.3% of third-country nationals in Malta held long-term residence, against an EU average of 51% - second from bottom.  By the end of 2024, Malta was still among 5 Member States where fewer than 1 in 5 non-EU residents held long-term status, against an EU average of 48%.  In that year, Identità issued just 28 long-term permits to beneficiaries of international protection, up from 1 in 2021.

Yet Malta issued the EU's highest number of residence permits relative to population: 51.7 per 1,000 inhabitants, despite intake falling by almost a third.  Read together, the numbers are telling.  Malta admits more people relative to its size than any other Member State, yet settles fewer than almost anyone. That is not an immigration policy.  It is a turnstile.

The second door is family reunification. The National Strategy for Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion 2025-2035 identifies the family as an important means of integration.  EU law recognises this through Directive 2003/86.Under the Family Reunification Regulations, a sponsor must have 2 years of lawful residence. Workers outside the Regulations face a discretionary policy requiring income of at least the national median wage - €18,940 - plus 20% for each family member.  For workers near the minimum wage, family reunification can therefore be beyond reach.

Those who qualify receive 1-year permits, renewed annually. Their family life remains tied to annual renewal.  Beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are excluded altogether - a blanket exclusion criticised by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and still in place at the end of 2025.

The numbers follow the design here too.  Between 2011 and 2015, family reasons accounted for 19% of Malta's first permits - among the bottom 5 in the EU.  By 2022, they accounted for about 2,700 of nearly 38,000 first permits, or 7%.  In 2024, Identità issued just 42 family reunification permits to refugees.  The Migrant Integration Policy Index reached the same conclusion in 2020.  Non-EU citizens were less likely to reunite with family in Malta than in most of Europe because policy was "long-delayed, restrictive and discretionary".  The 2025 Labour Migration Policy rebuilt the work permit regime.  It left family reunification largely untouched.

There is another problem: how the rules are administered. My earlier working paper records unclear and conflicting information, requirements changing without proper notice, and different interpretations between departments and even officials in the same department. It also records applicants being required to return with additional documents, a cycle repeated at renewal.

This matters. A person should know the requirements before applying. What Government publishes online should be what Government requires when the application is made. Requirements should not be hidden, introduced during the process or changed depending on the official handling the case.

There is also a wider European issue. In April 2022, the European Commission proposed making long-term residence easier to obtain. A blocking minority of Member States halted negotiations in early 2024.  None have been held since. Malta, however, does not need to wait for Brussels to change what lies within its own control.

The policy response should focus on 4 reforms. First, make long-term residence part of Malta's retention policy.  Publish clear criteria and reasons for refusal.  Decide applications within the 6 months already required by Maltese law. Provide integration courses at times shift workers can attend, at reasonable cost and through more than 1 provider. Review an income formula that can exclude a minimum-wage family from long-term residence.

Second, reform family reunification.  Align family members' permits with the sponsor's permit instead of requiring annual renewal.  Review the income threshold so that it reflects the wages of the workers Malta recruits.  End the blanket exclusion of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.  It serves no labour-market purpose and keeps families apart.

Third, make the system accountable.  Publish annual figures for applications, approvals, refusals and processing times for long-term residence and family reunification.  A system built on discretion needs transparency.

Fourth, make the rules complete, public and binding on the administration.  Publish in one place every criterion, document, procedure and condition an applicant must meet.  What is published must be what is applied.  There should be no hidden requirements and no additional conditions disclosed only after an application has been filed.  Changes should be published before they take effect, with a clear effective date.  They should not be imposed on applications already filed.  Applicants should not repeatedly be asked for documents already submitted.  The same rules should apply regardless of the department or official handling the case.

This is not simply poor administration.  People are making decisions about their jobs, residence and families on the basis of these rules.  Government has the right to set them.  Applicants have the right to know them in advance and to have them applied consistently.

The government's own 2025 Labour Migration Policy puts "retention and stability" first. That cannot stop at the work permit. If Malta wants the workers it recruits to stay, it must give them a workable route to long-term residence and family reunification.

David Spiteri Gingell is a Governance, Institutional, and Digital Transformation Consultant