It’s been happening for centuries.
Malta and Australia’s relationship has been a longstanding one for centuries, primarily because of the number of locals who migrated Down Under. Don’t believe us? This statsy video proves just that.
Animated Stats analysed the largest Australian immigrant groups from 1851 to 2019, and Malta is obviously on the list. Our country’s numbers shoot up in the ‘40s and climb well into the ‘70s, maintaining top 10 out of the 100-country list. By 1998, however, we disappear from the on-screen top 20 list. By the end of the video we rank at #37 with a total of 44,552 immigrants.
History of Maltese migration to Australia
While these stats are reliable and numbers did shoot up after the war, Maltese started immigrating in the early 1800s during the convict period with the first free settler being Antonio Azzopardi who arrived in the late 1830s, according to Malta’s Foreign Affairs.
And it wasn’t the easiest of things to do either. “Attempts at group migration from Malta at the end of the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries ended in failure. Despite British lobbying for the Australian government to allow Maltese immigration, those encouraged to make the journey received no government assistance towards their passage, and upon their arrival continued to encounter considerable public hostility to their entry into Australia,” Malta’s Foreign Affairs website notes.
“A softening of official attitudes towards the Maltese can be traced to the 1925 Federal government appointment of the first Maltese commissioner in Australia. This was followed by the granting of financial assistance towards the cost of the passage for wives wishing to join their Maltese husbands in Australia. In a matter of ten years the number of Malta-born persons in Australia rose by almost fifty per cent from a total of about 2,800 in 1929.”
The turning point for Maltese migrating fully to Australia was after World War II. “Post-war immigration followed the slogan ‘Populate or Perish’ and coincided with a great intake of Italian, Maltese and other non-British migrants. Additionally, the heroism of the Maltese people during this conflict made a deep impression on many Australians leading to an improvement in Australian attitudes towards Maltese. Post-war immigration from Malta accelerated during the twelve years between 1949 and 1961. The highest point was reached in the year 1954-55 when some 10,000 Maltese arrived to a new life in Australia.”
Have you ever visited Australia and had a chance to mingle with the Maltese population there? Let us know!