I would like to comment on the much-publicised recent Convention for Maltese Living Abroad, based on my own quarter-century migrant's experience in southern England, and my observations of other migrants. In my view, the crux of the problem that comes across in the media reporting of this convention is one of lack of integration by some Maltese in their new homeland - if after some 60 years in Australia you still feel Australia is a foreign land and that home is Malta, then obviously you never integrated in Australian society.

This lack of integration can be blamed on illiteracy, but there must also be an underlying strong element of obstinacy not to open up oneself to the reality of a new homeland and new friends, and to the fact that some genuine friends may actually turn out to be more helpful than family. If one is locked into a mentality that the confines of one's existence are solely within one's home and family, then no doubt one risks ending up in isolation when the offspring fly the nest.

On the other hand, I know of Maltese migrants who are so well integrated in their new homeland that they would never dream of returning to live in Malta. I know of some others who returned to live in Malta but left again for their new homeland after a few years here - presumably they found out that reality was somewhat different from nostalgic imagery. I also know of some migrants from continental Europe who have not only become fluent in English, but also in Maltese, in their efforts to integrate into their new Maltese homeland.

Integration, therefore, depends very much on the individual. Some Maltese unfortunately have a negative mentality, blaming all untoward happenings on everything else except themselves, instead of trying to find a solution with a positive attitude.

I wonder how acquainted Maltese in Australia are with the realities of the Maltese state's provisions for its pensioners and elderly. Are they aware that there are several hundred elderly on the waiting lists of Maltese public sector old peoples' homes, and that the cost of private nursing homes is out of the majority's reach? Are they aware of how low Maltese pensions are, and that official statistics indicate that around 22 per cent of our over-65s are at risk of poverty? Are they aware that we also have elderly living in solitude and isolation in Malta?

Are they aware that Maltese migrants returning to work in Malta, and Maltese formerly employed by the British Services, have had their Maltese pension (calculated on the basis of their Maltese national insurance contributions) severely reduced, or practically totally abolished, because a Maltese Pension Law of the late 1970s punishes them for having a service/occupational pension from a foreign country, and that this scandalous state-imposed injustice goes against the spirit of free-movement of labour (and their respective pensions) within the EU?

Maltese in Australia would do well to take what politicians tell them with a pinch of salt, and not let nostalgia for Maltese festa petards go to their heads.