In the case of Malta, MIPEX found the family reunion and long term residence policies to its strengths, whilst access to the labour market and anti-discrimination are Malta’s week points. Malta’s family reunion policies ranked 8th and its long term residence policies ranked 11th amongst the EU members. These rankings show that although Malta’s family reunion and long term residence policies are considered its strengths, some work to improve them still needs to be done. In the areas considered Malta’s weak points, Malta ranked 24th in access to nationality; 26th in access to the labour market; and 23rd in anti-discrimination policies. Malta’s worst policy area regarding migrant integration is access to the labour market. MIPEX reports that Malta does not have any labour market integration measures, apart from one pilot project on language and life-training skills for asylum seekers.
The area of political participation of migrants, identified by MIPEX as one of Malta’s weak point (but also a weak point of the majority of the EU member States) is also be reflected in the lack of implementation by Malta of the 9th CBP on political participation. Having said the above, when considering the evaluation of Malta’s integration policies, made by the MIPEX, it should be kept in mind that Malta joined the EU in 2004, and efforts regarding the integration of immigrants began in 2005. thus, only four years after Malta’s membership into the EU, the results achieved by Malta in the area of immigrant integration cannot be considered negative, but more a “ work in progress “, with the attainment of some good results. After all, the immigration phenomenon is a relatively new issue, to which Malta is adapting...Read more
