66% of foreign workers in Malta come from the EU

Only 7% of the 12,724 foreigners currently working in Malta hail from sub-Saharan Africa. Workers hailing from 99 non-EU countries account for only 34% of the 12,724.

While the number of workers from the EU has almost doubled in four years, from 4,262 in 2008 to 8,445 in 2012 - an increase of 98% - the number of non-EU workers has increased by just 12%, from 3,675 in 2007 to 4,279 now.

While workers from Asia have increased substantially over the past six years, workers from North Africa and the Middle East have decreased from 439 to 258.

At 561, the number of Serbians has remained the same as in 2007.

But Filipinos have overtaken Serbians as the most represented national group in Malta's non-EU workforce.

Filipinos, at 669, are now the third most numerous foreign workers after the British and Italians.

A breakdown of statistics provided to MaltaToday by the Ministry for Employment shows that sub-Saharan Africans are outnumbered by both Asians and Europeans from outside the European Union.

The largest number of non-EU workers in Malta (759) occupies accommodation and food service jobs, followed by administrative services, construction and manufacturing.

Balkan builders, Filipino nurses

45% of all Filipinos in Malta are employed in the human health and social work sector, one which includes trained medical professionals in hospitals, residential carers and social workers.

78% of non-EU workers employed in this sector are from the Philippines.

In 2010, Filppinos also accounted for 108 of 499 (22%) registered home-based personal care workers. Of the 23 registered nannies working in Malta, 10 were from the Philippines.

In total 140 Filipinos were registered as personal care workers, nannies, domestic cleaners, butlers and housekeepers.

China, the most populous country in the world, accounts for only 3% of foreign workers in Malta. Overall the number of Chinese has increased from 261 in 2005 to 404 now.

Significantly, 159 of 404 Chinese workers in Malta are engaged in manufacturing. They account for 36% of all non-EU workers engaged in that sector.

Most of the Chinese workers are employed by Leisure Clothing Ltd, a textile company which employs 73 Chinese and 25 Maltese workers. Although offered the basic conditions set by Maltese law, these workers have their lodging expenses deleted from their wages.

Africans (mainly Eritrean, Nigerian and Ethiopian) and Indians work most often in the food and accommodation sector, where there is also a large population of Chinese workers. This is not surprising, considering the large number of Asian restaurants in Malta.

The construction industry employs a total of 461 non-EU workers: 108 of them hail from Serbia, 55 from Bosnia and 40 from India.

Only 258 workers (2% of the foreign workforce) come from North Africa and the Middle East. 98 workers come from Libya, a decrease of 20 compared to 2005. Most Libyans are employed either as wholesalers or in the construction sector.

Sub-Saharan workers mostly hail from East Africa, notably Eritrea (179), Ethiopia (114) and Somalia (104). But a substantial number (137) are Nigerian workers, 49 in hotels.

The statistics do not account for the underground economy.