Economic aspects of migration in Malta

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is to analyse, formulate and assess the number of different economic aspects that migrants bring in their host country. Mainly dealing with Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants, this research aims to conclude whether or not it is beneficial to the Maltese Islands to accept these migrants relative to its capabilities. In this research, we keep in mind, the number of factors that play a major role in an economy, including the Financial Crises of 2008 and migration movements from Eastern Europe, and North Africa amongst others. Another important factor is the GDP and the GDP per Capita of Malta relative to the migrants. Certain statistics, due to the lack of updated information, concern data coming from old sources rather than the more recent years. More recently, however, there has been a number of policies and organisations in Malta that mainly focus on the health and safety of the migrants. We also took into consideration the number of aspects when it comes to the differences between Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants. To keep this research a balanced one, we did not only look at the negative economic aspects of migration in Malta, but also took into consideration the number of skills, education, capabilities that these people possess. In Malta, currently we are seeing a number of sectors rising within the economy, and the majority of them are created by the migrants’ previous experiences.