Modern Emigration from Malta

Bibliographic Data

ID8962539
AuthorsHuw Jones (0000-0003-4307-9030, corresponding author), Huw R Jones
Year1973
Issue60
Pages101-101
Publication date1973-11-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/621508
OpenAlexW2321033071
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Emigration is a well-established response in Malta to a severe pressure of population on resources. In this paper Maltese emigration is used as a case study to illustrate the range of factors which have influenced the level, direction and composition of international migration in recent years. The Department of Emigration in Malta provides a wide range of reliable data, which can be tested against immigration data for the major destination countries. The importance of government involvement in the migration process, both at origin and destination, is emphasized, and the problems arising from an active emigration programme in Malta are assessed. The spatial pattern of emigration by Maltese localities is related to the island's social and economic geography by multiple regression analysis. THE CRITICAL elements in any conceptualization of the migration process are, first, the factors which characterize the quality of living in potential areas of origin and destination; secondly, the perception of these factors and their relevance to the value standards and goals of potential migrants; and, thirdly, a set of intervening obstacles.1 The validity of such generalization is entirely dependent on the recognition that man's behaviour is not random or capricious, but governed by underlying forces such as Zipf's Principle of Least Effort.2 In the case of migration within a country it is possible to quantify most, although not all, of the elements in the process, so that inter-regional migration streams can be explained fairly satisfactorily in mathematical terms. The derived models can then be used for predictive purposes, although always within the limits imposed by the precise assumptions made.3 In the case of international migration, a similar expression of the migration process is made difficult by appreciable government involvement in some of the basic elements of the process. In particular, immigration regulations transform intervening obstacles into barriers, at least after particular levels of movement have been reached. A certain measure of government control over internal migration is, of course, often exerted, but invariably the range of inducements and deterrents is more indirect and less stringent than with international migration. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the factors influencing contemporary international migration through a consideration of recent trends in emigration from Malta, a country which has had the highest emigration rate in Europe since the Second World War. The importance of government influence, both at origin and destination, will be particularly evident in this case study. DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION OF MALTESE EMIGRATION Malta has always lacked the conventional natural resources to sustain appreciable population densities. It totally lacks indigenous sources of power and industrial raw material; the soils developed from its dominantly limestone parent material are thin and stony; and the mean annual rainfall of 52 cm falling on a restricted catchment area provides very limited fresh water resources. As early as the rule of the Knights of St John, 1630-I798, the dependence of the Maltese economy on external sources of wealth rather than on indigenous productive capacity had been established, and this was accentuated during the course of British colonial administration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The decline of agriculture, cotton manufacturing and the

Conceptualization · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic geography · Economics · Emigration · Generalization · Geography · Government (linguistics · Immigration · Maltese · Net migration rate · Population · Population growth · Sociology · Computer Science · Demography · Mathematics · Migration and Labor Dynamics

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