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Malta Emigration and Immigration


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Finding the Town of Origin in Malta

If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Malta, see Malta Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Malta Emigration and Immigration

"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country.
Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.


Immigration into Malta

  • Malta's location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British.
  • Malta became a British colony in 1813, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet. Some 22,000 British servicemen posted in Malta from 1807 to 1979, as well as other British and Irish that settled in Malta over the decades.
  • Between 1915 and 1918, during the First World War, Malta became known as the Nurse of the Mediterranean due to the large number of wounded soldiers who were accommodated in Malta.
  • Malta achieved its independence as the State of Malta on 21 September 1964 A defence agreement was signed soon after independence, and after being re-negotiated in 1972, expired on 31 March 1979. Upon its expiry, the British base closed down and all lands formerly controlled by the British on the island were given up to the Maltese government.[1][2]

Emigration From Malta

  • Emigration from Malta was an important demographic phenomenon throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading to the creation of large Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad.
  • Malta has always been a maritime nation, and for centuries, there has been extensive interaction between Maltese sailors and fishermen and their counterparts around the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic Ocean. More significantly, by the mid-19th century the Maltese already had a long history of migration to various places, including Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria, Cyprus, the Ionian Islands, Greece, Sicily and Lampedusa. Intermarriage with other nationals (especially Italians and Sicilians) was not uncommon. Migrants would periodically return to Malta, bringing with them new customs and traditions that over time have been absorbed into mainstream Maltese culture.
  • Mass emigration picked up in the 19th century. Migration was initially to north African countries (particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt). By 1900, for example, British consular estimates suggest that there were 15,326 Maltese in Tunisia.
  • There is little trace left of the Maltese communities in north Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like Marseille, the United Kingdom or Australia. In the years preceding Tunisia's declaration of independence in 1956, most of the Maltese community left the country to settle in Marseille, France, which retains the biggest Maltese community in France.
  • Later Maltese migrants headed towards the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia.
  • Over 10,000 Maltese settled in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States between 1918 and 1920, followed by another 90,000 – or 30 percent of the population of Malta – between 1948 and 1967.mBy 1996, the net emigration from Malta during the 20th century exceeded 120,000, or 33.5% of the population of Malta.
  • After World War II, Malta's Emigration Department would assist emigrants with the cost of their travel. Between 1948 and 1967, 30 per cent of the population emigrated. Between 1946 and the late 1970s, over 140,000 people left Malta on the assisted passage scheme, with 57.6 per cent migrating to Australia, 22 per cent to the United Kingdom, 13 per cent to Canada and 7 per cent to the United States.
  • Since Malta joined the EU in 2004 expatriate communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg.[3]
  • Malta Emigrants Commission The Emigrants Commission was established in 1950 due to the large exodus of Maltese to foreign lands because of overpopulation and unemployment. The purpose of the commission was to offer help to those who intended to settle abroad. Now its services cover all those affected by migration including immigrants, refugees, and tourists.

Records of Maltese Emigrants in Their Destination Nations

Dark thin font green pin Version 4.png One option is to look for records about the ancestor in the country of destination, the country they immigrated into. See links to Wiki articles about immigration records for major destination countries below. Additional Wiki articles for other destinations can be found at Category:Emigration and Immigration Records.

For Further Reading

There are additional sources listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:

References

  1. ↑ "Malta", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta, accessed 28 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "Immigration to Malta", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Malta, accessed 28 July 2021.
  3. ↑ "Emigration from Malta", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_Malta, accessed 28 July 2021.
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