Maltese emigrants served again by internet
A Maltese academic living in Australia has launched a new website to enhance connections between members of the Maltese community all over the world.The Maltese Connection website is accessible at http://www.malteseconnections.com.The website is one of...
A Maltese academic living in Australia has launched a new website to enhance connections between members of the Maltese community all over the world.
The Maltese Connection website is accessible at http://www.malteseconnections.com.
The website is one of the projects that fall under the umbrella of the Maltese Connections Project and it is the brainchild of Victoria Borg, a psychologist at the Victoria University of Melbourne, Australia.
The website was launched during her recent five-month visit to Malta as an academic at the University of Malta, through the exchange programme that exists with the Victoria University.
"Over the centuries, members of the Maltese community have migrated to various parts of the world. As such, the Maltese diaspora plays a significant role in the Maltese identity both for native Maltese living in the Maltese islands and the Maltese living abroad," said Dr Borg.
"The need for members of the Maltese community living abroad to connect with their homeland and its people (and vice-versa) is becoming more salient in a globalised world. The need to connect to our roots - including culture and identity - is critical for our psychological and psychosocial development and wellbeing."
Although the website has only been operating for a few months, it seems to be reaching its objectives.
"This is reflected by the messages that are continuously coming through the guest book, personal e-mails, phone calls and personal encounters," said Dr Borg, who is a first-generation Maltese migrant to Australia.
Dr Borg regularly communicates with the users through The Boomerang Effect - Love Letters from Australia service, which she handles personally.
Her doctoral research project in 2005, entitled Life Satisfaction Of Adolescents Across Cultures: A Study In Malta And Australia, involved two groups of adolescents: native Maltese living in Malta and Maltese-Australian adolescents. She believes her study has broken new ground in terms of understanding our society and its culture from a cultural-psychological perspective.
"Indeed, through its quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, I identified a number of new cultural, psychological and psychosocial issues that are alien to the Maltese community and academia. Although the focus of that study was adolescents, these issues and their underlying causes can be extended to other age groups. That study generated a great deal of new research in relation to the complexity of the Maltese culture and the subjective wellbeing of the members its society."
The Maltese Connection website is accessible at http://www.malteseconnections.com.
The website is one of the projects that fall under the umbrella of the Maltese Connections Project and it is the brainchild of Victoria Borg, a psychologist at the Victoria University of Melbourne, Australia.
The website was launched during her recent five-month visit to Malta as an academic at the University of Malta, through the exchange programme that exists with the Victoria University.
"Over the centuries, members of the Maltese community have migrated to various parts of the world. As such, the Maltese diaspora plays a significant role in the Maltese identity both for native Maltese living in the Maltese islands and the Maltese living abroad," said Dr Borg.
"The need for members of the Maltese community living abroad to connect with their homeland and its people (and vice-versa) is becoming more salient in a globalised world. The need to connect to our roots - including culture and identity - is critical for our psychological and psychosocial development and wellbeing."
Although the website has only been operating for a few months, it seems to be reaching its objectives.
"This is reflected by the messages that are continuously coming through the guest book, personal e-mails, phone calls and personal encounters," said Dr Borg, who is a first-generation Maltese migrant to Australia.
Dr Borg regularly communicates with the users through The Boomerang Effect - Love Letters from Australia service, which she handles personally.
Her doctoral research project in 2005, entitled Life Satisfaction Of Adolescents Across Cultures: A Study In Malta And Australia, involved two groups of adolescents: native Maltese living in Malta and Maltese-Australian adolescents. She believes her study has broken new ground in terms of understanding our society and its culture from a cultural-psychological perspective.
"Indeed, through its quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, I identified a number of new cultural, psychological and psychosocial issues that are alien to the Maltese community and academia. Although the focus of that study was adolescents, these issues and their underlying causes can be extended to other age groups. That study generated a great deal of new research in relation to the complexity of the Maltese culture and the subjective wellbeing of the members its society."