Was denken die Leute?
Als Außenstehender habe ich einige Beobachtungen gemacht, nachdem ich auf den maltesischen Inseln übernachtet habe. Es war sehr klar und für mich ein wenig überraschend, wie so viele Gastronomiebetriebe offenbar von Wanderarbeitskräften am Laufen gehalten werden. Ich komme aus einem englischsprachigen Land, in dem wir auch ein ähnliches Thema haben, wenn auch sicherlich nicht so offensichtlich wie in Malta.
So nett die Mitarbeiter auch waren und durchweg einen guten Service leisteten, ihre Englischkenntnisse waren in vielen Fällen nicht besonders hoch. An vielen Orten, die wir besuchten, gab es Missverständnisse. Ich bin zu der Überzeugung gelangt, dass die Gastarbeiter über bestimmte Englischkenntnisse verfügen müssen, um in Malta leben und arbeiten zu können. Deshalb habe ich darüber nachgedacht, ob diejenigen mit höheren Englischkenntnissen diejenigen sind, die in Großbritannien, Kanada, Australien usw. arbeiten. Auch die Löhne im Gastgewerbe scheinen in Malta im Vergleich zu diesen Orten eher niedrig zu sein, vielleicht hat dies also auch Auswirkungen.
Ich war auch der Meinung, dass viele dieser Arbeitnehmer in Ihrem Land noch sehr neu sind und ich hatte nicht den Eindruck, dass viele bereits richtig integriert sind. Stimmt das?
Der Politiker, der am Ende des Artikels zu Protokoll gegeben wird, greift einen Punkt auf, mit dem ich kürzlich selbst gerungen habe, nämlich die Balance zwischen der Förderung der maltesischen Kultur und der Schaffung eines offenen Ortes, der die Arbeit willkommen heißt.
Persönlich kann ich wirklich verstehen, warum die Malteser in letzter Zeit über bestimmte Entwicklungen im Land frustriert sind. Ich weiß, dass es dort zum Beispiel Bedenken hinsichtlich der Korruption gibt, aber ich würde sagen, dass Malta aus internationaler Sicht (um ehrlich zu sein) scheinbar (bisher) jeglicher Gegenreaktion ausgewichen ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden die Besucherzahlen weiter steigen, wodurch unter anderem auch die Nachfrage nach Dienstleistungen weiter steigen wird. Vieles davon führt dazu, dass die Malteser wohlhabender werden (direkt und indirekt in unterschiedlichem Maße). Wie sieht also die Zukunft Maltas in Bezug auf Demografie und Industriestrategie aus?
https://timesofmalta.com/article/hospitality-stakeholders-urge-acceptance-integration-noneu-workers.1118740
Von Western_Respond6047
7 Kommentare
The MHRA really rests on these „no option“ scenarios. The truth is that the industry is extremely exploitative. A lot of smaller hotels choose to blind themselves to the true nature of the exploitation by outsourcing their hiring.
So, basically, a small boutique hotel in Valletta isn’t going to bring someone over and hang on to their passport and threaten them with deportation should they ever complain about work conditions. They just outsource their cleaners from a company that does just that.
When I was younger I worked in a hotel. The pay was shit but it was our first job and we got good tips. Of course, the hotel had the hassle of recruiting every year, and if course young people are spirited so they had to reign us in a lot.
I would imagine they don’t do this any more because it is easier to hold a foreigner hostage to his residency permit. This last bit, I dunno, not sure if it’s true but it is what I suspect. Like you, I cannot imagine why hotels and restaurants don’t hire well educated teenagers any more. I don’t believe that teenagers don’t want to work. I think foreigners are just easier.
It took them at least 10 years to understand it. Maltese kids are too spoiled to serve other people. And Maltese owners are not willing to pay proper salaries, they need blackmailable slaves and they found them.
The enshitification of Malta continues.
‚We all own businesses that exploit poor migrant labour. We would like you to deal with the overpopulation, damage to social cohesion, the rise of racism, higher rents etc.
Meanwhile we’ll get more money charging higher prices for a worse service‘
People wonder why we keep attracting higher numbers of ‚low quality‘ tourism, its because the only reason most people come to malta is to see and interact with malta. Not a bargain budget Qatar. Everytime I’m on a plane I hear „Was OK, wouldn’t go back there though“
Bet none of these fuckers live in my area
Tldr; I dont want to give livable respectful wages so I fill my pockets by hiring Indians at minimum wage or lower who are ok with this because they live 6 people per apartment and have no family while spending the least they can and sending the money generated here to India, contributing minimally to the Maltese economy.
Tldr2; Hilton exploits workers to make money.
The problem started when we chased number or tourists instead of quality of tourists.
The economy started to gear towards more hotels, Airbnb’s and boutique hotels.
Funding these projects needs the promise of increased profitability.
The profitability comes from paying low salaries.
Then comes the salary-expenses loop:
Locals don’t want low salaries, so we need to bring foreign workers.
More foreign workers means higher demand in property, and more competitive job market.
Higher demand in property means that locals want even higher salaries.
And for the hotel owners:
We invested in these projects because you wanted to grow the economy. Now you must do as we say.
The solution is simple – kick out 50% of the foreign workers. salaries will go back up, some of the unsustainable hotels need to close down and finally Maltese people will want to work in service jobs again.
As a result our tourism product will improve because tourists WANT to be served by Maltese people. They don’t want to be served by a TCN who is trying to make ends meet.
As a result the government won’t need to employ low skilled people to just give them a living wage and these people will return to normal decently paid work. Government expenditure will go down.
As a result the property market will cool down and people will stop buying houses to turn into „boutique hotels“ and Airbnb’s.
As a result the young people who actually LIKE working in the service industry can have a future ahead of them instead of being forced into igaming customer service jobs just to have a chance at getting ahead.
We are good at tourism and service work. Remember when British tourists used to praise us for being hospitable? These days they come and find TCNs who can’t speak a word of English.
The locals who are meant to be working these jobs are either struggling or working some bullshit government job which is a politician’s „favour“.
Malta doesn’t have the size to become a tourist destination which appeals to everyone, nor does it have the people and the workers. Tourism needs to be CAPPED and high value.
Visiting Malta should be a beautiful expensive holiday for richer people, not your chav who is coming here to get high at a rave. Or it should be a destination where you come spend months learning something (like English, remember that?) in a tourism-learning setup.
We lost any strategic thinking in tourism long ago. The formula is simple – length of stay, spend per day.
Tourists with higher spend and higher length of stay should be preferred.
Completely reset the economy and remove the cancer which is low quality tourism.
My reaction? I don’t care what the MHRA has to say. They are the problem because they are a bunch of greedy uncreative leeches.
An economy which is over reliant on shitty tourism is the source of ALL of Malta’s problems.
What happened to the „authenticity“ buzz word?
Nothing is more authentic than having TCNs working as waiters in a restaurant serving Maltese food, who barely know a word in Maltese or anything about the food they are serving.
It’s not only the third country nationals who speak poor English. A lot of locals speak poor and broken English as well, despite English being an official language. I would say the average English proficiency level in the country is B2.