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==Emigration From Malta== | ==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.'''<ref>"Emigration from Malta", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_Malta, accessed 28 July 2021.</ref> | |||
==Records of Emigrants in Their Destination Nations== | ==Records of Emigrants in Their Destination Nations== | ||
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