There was a time when foreigners living in Malta were thought to be loaded with money. They were considered fair game, always there to be overcharged and cheated on the assumption they could afford it. Times have changed.

The Central Bank of Malta last year reported that the composition of the foreign workforce has changed significantly in recent years. In 2000, nearly three quarters of foreign workers were managers, professional and technical staff. By 2014, this had fallen to less than half, with a rising proportion of foreign workers in elementary occupation.

Understandably, the share of foreign full-time workers expanded significantly since EU accession. Now there are foreign workers doing jobs no longer attractive to Maltese workers. The construction industry has reported rapid growth in revenues thanks to a growing pool of foreign workers being employed at lower wages.

Naturally, for a country that until the 1980s was still prone to seeing workers emigrate rather immigrate, the change in the workforce profile has not always been smooth. Setting aside the cultural challenges posed by North African migrants and the terrible racism they sometimes face on the island, assimilating foreigners in general is still not easy. They remain foreigners on this insular island.

Senior university lecturer Gordon Sammut told this newspaper that from a study it emerged that while foreigners tried to integrate, the Maltese preferred to see migrants, of any nationality, taking on Maltese characteristics instead. He warned that this could lead to conflict between different ethnic groups inthe future.

Last year, there were 31,500 foreign workers in Malta, including 23,000 EU nationals. Topping that list of EU immigrants were Italians followed by British workers. Given EU membership, they generally find it easier to fit into the system but that is not integration.

The other day, a group of tenants from rented properties in Malta went to ARMS Ltd and asked to start paying lower utility rates as they were promised by the Minister Within the Office of the Prime Minister, Konrad Mizzi, six months before.

The foreign tenants are trying to overcome the problem created by an electricity pricing system that divides household use into two bands: a ‘residential’ tariff for the primary home and a significantly higher ‘domestic’ tariff, reserved for second homes and “non-residents”, for which read “foreigners”.

Members of the campaign group Up in Arms are asking the billing company to switch them to the residential rate. Shocking was the fact that the Up in Arms campaigners said some tenants had not turned up for the mass application because their landlords told them that if they applied for the residential rate they would be out on the street.

All that ARMS Ltd could tell them was that technicalities were still being ironed out.

The cause of the problem is that landlords do not want their tenants to apply for residential rates because that would alert the authorities to the fact that they are renting out their property and, hence, would have to pay taxes.

It is incredible that half a century into the country’s independence, foreigners are still being looked upon as milking cows. The truth is, as the Central Bank of Malta points out, foreign workers do not just make a significant contribution to economic growth but also help improve the state of public finances in Malta.

So why is it so difficult to help them back? Maybe it is because they have no vote.