Labour’s indecent proposals

In the after-budget press conference, Robert Abela took umbrage at MaltaToday’s question over measures to make non-EU nationals pay for services they received for free until now. 

He quipped that while MaltaToday’s concerns survey regularly recorded overpopulation as a main concern, the newspaper was now questioning the government’s socialist credentials for acting to address that concern. 

We will not comment on the prime minister’s failure to distinguish between a survey, which gauges public sentiment, and the newspaper’s editorial stance. But there is much to gather from the manner by which Abela responded, including his assertion that it is a mistake to assume TCNs earn peanuts. Never mind that a study by the Central Bank of Malta shows otherwise, Abela’s reply lacked humanity. 

Furthermore, Clyde Caruana and Silvio Schembri, both economists, gave textbook replies as to how the measures will address overpopulation. The narrative goes somewhat like this: Non-EU nationals will incur new expenses and thus turn to their employers demanding higher wages; employers can either eat into their profit margins and pay more to retain those people they have trained and do not want to lose; or employers can decide that employing a foreign national is becoming too expensive and it is better to invest in automation and digital processes instead; either way, the market will realise that bringing over more non-EU nationals is less attractive and thus fewer will be imported. 

In a nutshell, government’s narrative is to use the stick with foreign workers to direct the market into a new direction. 

It is interesting that the Labour government has suddenly discovered the will to use the stick. Whenever experts suggested the introduction of on-street parking meters to encourage people to shift from using their private car to public transport, government ministers would recoil. ‘We do not believe in the stick, we prefer to use the carrot,’ they would say. 

However, it seems, that belief no longer holds when speaking about non-EU nationals. For this category, the stick is an acceptable tool to use, even though they are among the most vulnerable in society and on the workplace. 

But irrespective of this volte-face, government’s strategy is indecent. 

Of course, overpopulation has become a problem, especially when coupled with more than four million tourists. But if it wanted to really tackle overpopulation and at the same time force businesses to become more productive, government could have gone directly to the source and cap work permits in certain sectors. Businesses that cannot recruit foreign labour will have to invest in their processes to become more efficient; automate to be able to do more with less and offer better wages to attract and retain workers. 

Instead, the finance minister chose to point the gun at non-EU nationals by making their daily life more expensive and difficult. They are the convenient scapegoats because they do not vote and the majority of people do not want them here. It is no wonder, General Workers Union Secretary General Kevin Camilleri described the measures as “populist”. 

The hardship imposed on third country nationals tries to achieve an economic aim while appeasing those who consider them as inferior. The measures blame TCN’s for the government’s failure to sustain its own economic policy by investing in public infrastructure. The measures simply add fuel to the fire of those who harbour an us-and-them sentiment and this is possibly the greatest problem the government is ignoring. 

The Labour government has embarked on a dangerous road; one where discrimination, prejudice, xenophobia and racism have received institutional blessing. And this is not a spurious or alarmist observation. 

Even if the government truly believes in its strategy and is willing to defend it, it should have the basic decency of pushing back against the xenophobic and racist sentiments that have emerged since the budget announcement. 

Unfortunately, neither the prime minister nor his finance minister took a strong principled stand against those who indulge in the us-and-them mentality. From all ministers, it was only Rosianne Cutajar, who expressed “discomfort”. The silence is loud. 

At this stage, the Labour Party might as well ditch its hymn, which speaks of unity amongst all workers and compassion towards the downtrodden. Those values have been replaced by an economic text book that prioritises numbers over humanity, division over unity.