The implications of the EU Labour Migration Framework for low- and medium skilled migration to Malta

Abstract

Focusing on the period 2004–2023, the research is structured around three central research questions and integrates legal analysis, economic theory, and empirical evidence analysing the effects on the Maltese labour market. The presentation will outline the progress achieved so far in identifying an economic theory, gathering data on the Maltese labour market between 2004 and 2023, establishing a legal database, and developing the foundations of a restrictiveness index of migration. The latter, refers to be the degree to which the relevant EU directive, its national transposition and/or scheme limit, condition or exclude access for low- and medium-skilled migrants to the national labour market. These elements are developed through the literature review and methodology chapters. The literature review chapter explores classical and neoclassical economic models of migration, including the human capital theory, wage-differential models, and the gravity model, which view migration as an investment decision which is influenced by expected income gains, migration costs, and labour market conditions. The review further examines legal migration constraints, particularly how admission criteria, sectoral quotas, labour market tests, skill thresholds, and administrative burdens may influence the volume and composition of labour inflows. Through the engagement of gravity models, which have been identified as the primary theoretical framework for this research, the study assesses how such models have been used to explore migration patterns. Gravity models typically include variables such as economic size, unemployment differentials, geographic distance, and policy constraints as indicators to explain migration flows. Building on this literature, the dissertation seeks to adapt a gravity-type framework to the Maltese context by integrating a legal restrictiveness index to examine how EU-level labour migration legislation and national transposition shape low- and medium-skilled migration outcomes. The study adopts a mixed-methods research design whereby each research question has a specific methodology including different variables, data sources, and analytical tools. The quantitative component employs regression analysis based on secondary data. While a restrictiveness matrix, as mentioned previously, is drawn up to analyse the level of restrictiveness policies implemented between 2004 – 2023 and their impact on low- and medium-skilled migrants. These two chapters of the study provide a structured framework for examining the relationship between EU labour migration governance and low- and medium-skilled labour mobility. The literature review and methodology chapters therefore lay the conceptual and analytical foundations for the research.