Research

Background

The Europe 2020 Strategy and the Stockholm Programme recognize the potential of migration and more effective integration of legal migrants for building a competitive and sustainable economy.

Malta

Malta is mainly known as a destination country for asylum-seekers, although since 1970s the country has seen the inflows of Indians, Filipinos and later of Albanian and Russian nationals. According to statistics published in Brussels, in 2010, there were 16,700 foreigners living in Malta, among them 11,300, were non-EU citizens (TCNs and asylum seekers), which counts around 2,7% of the total population.
Under the coordination of the IOM Malta, direct involvement of the IOM Missions in Madrid, and Rome and the expert support of the IOM Regional Office in Brussels will contribute towards development and implementation of integration policies on both national and local levels in other EU Member States will be shared with the Maltese stakeholders.

Objectives of the study

The purpose of the study is to share the best existing practices in EU countries in integration of TCNs through work within the 3 proposed areas of the research:

1. Pre-departure training programmes and cooperation with countries of origin;
2. Combating discrimination in employment – including access to work and workplace discrimination;
3. Stakeholder cooperation on various levels of governance.

The outcome of the Three research papers shall serve the Maltese stakeholders, national government officials as well as social partners and the civil society in the following way:

1. to increase the knowledge of policies and practices developed in other EU Member States, and their impact on immigrant integration in the labour market,
2. to increase the capacity to adapt the experiences tested elsewhere to the Maltese context.

The study will be implemented by three independent external researchers from three different countries, Malta, Spain and Italy. They will carry out the research based on the project description with the help of the assessment questionnaire (AQ). IOM in Malta will collect the inputs on knowledge gaps among the Maltese stakeholders in the field of migrant workers integration.

Timeframe

The three research papers will be based on the thematic areas of the project. The research study will be implemented in the following order:

1. July, August: Identifying the experts, distribution of the AQ to the stakeholders and collect the feedback for the research.
2. September, October: Data collection, desk research and producing draft research papers by the consultants.
3. October: Experts meeting where the draft three research papers will be presented. Direct consultation on the meeting with stakeholders, their input and active participation to the research.
4. October-January 2013: Research being finalized and presented to the stakeholders and invitees to the conference.
5. March 2013: Organization of a Pan- European Conference will be organized at the end of the project. The conference will serve as a platform, where the research papers will be presented by the experts and where further feedback from the participants will be given to the research.

Documentation

IOM LINET’s two-volume study Migration, Employment and Labour Market Integration Policies in the European Union (2000-2009).

Part 1: “Migration and the Labour Markets in the European Union (2000-2009)” analyses data on labour market impacts of migration.
Part 2: “Labour Market Integration Policies in the European Union (2000-2009)” provides a detailed analysis of the national labour market integration policies.

The latest European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals (COM 2011/455 final)
Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) released in 2011
Integration of Third Country Nationals in Malta, Institute of Criminology, University of Malta, April 2010.
National Reform Programme: National Strategy for Growth and Jobs, November 2005, Malta.