Prime Minister Robert Abela said the government will become more selective on the type of foreign workers it allows into Malta.
Interviewed by Reno Bugeja, Abela said the country will only allow foreign workers who provide “added value” to the economy without excessively burdening the country’s infrastructure.
He wasn’t specific on which kinds of jobs he was referring to. However, he said he has already instructed Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to order JobsPlus to analyse the labour market and issue recommendations.
“I don’t want an economy that simply creates as many jobs as possible, even if they are low-skilled. I want an economy that creates the best kinds of jobs and offers more opportunities to trained workers.”
“We must be ambitious. When it comes to sectors that burden the infrastructure without any corresponding strong added economic value, the decision will be that these workers cannot enter Malta anymore.”
“We can afford to do this now but we couldn’t ten years ago, when around 8,000 Maltese people were unemployed and every new opportunity was taken up by one of them. Now, because we luckily don’t have unemployment, we can carry out this exercise of choice.”
Does Malta need to be more selective on which foreign workers it allows?
