Almost half the second-generation Maltese people living in Australia would be interested in voting during Malta’s national and MEP elections if postal voting were available, a study has shown.
Some 41 per cent said it would be interesting to vote to elect Malta’s MPs while 44.7 per cent would vote in the European Parliament elections.
This emerged from a survey carried out by the Maltese Community Council of Victoria, Australia, to fill the gap in knowledge about the views of second-generation Maltese in Australia.
Prof. Maurice Cauchi, a community leader in Melbourne who has written extensively on Maltese migration, outlines the findings in a report issued this month.
According to figures from the 2011 census, the second and subsequent generations of Maltese-background people in Australia amount to 163,990 – making up about four-fifths of the total Maltese-background population there.
66 per cent defined their ethnicity as Maltese/Australian
The majority (65 per cent) are under the age of 50, and 13 per cent are aged over 60. Meanwhile, nearly 43,000 were born to parents who were themselves born in Australia, so they belong to the third generation.
In his report, Prof. Cauchi notes that there has been a complete change in the constitution of the family in the second generation when compared to the first. “The vast majority of the first generation was constituted of a couple, both of whom were of Maltese background, speaking Maltese to each other and to their friends, who often were also Maltese.
“In this survey it was found that there has been a marked shift, with the majority of people of Maltese background (60.4 per cent) having a partner of Australian or other non-Maltese background,” he says.
The author goes on to note that in the early days of settlement, especially immediately after World War II, not many Maltese migrants, and still less their children, would have thought of themselves as Australians or Maltese-Australians.
Meanwhile, the survey results show that a majority of the 200 respondents – 66 per cent – defined their ethnicity as Maltese/Australian while 11 per cent felt they were Maltese. Some 23 per cent considered themselves Australian.
Also, a “considerable proportion” – 31 per cent – had a Maltese passport and another 30 per cent were considering applying for one.
Citizenship is a major indicator of ethnicity, according to Prof. Cauchi. There was a time when people could not hold citizenship of more than one country and many of the first generation had to make the “painful decision” of losing their Maltese citizenship if they applied for an Australian one.
But Australia was now recognising dual citizenships and Malta had declared that people had not lost it when applying for other citizenships.
The survey also took a look at political interests, with 21 per cent declaring that they kept themselves informed of the political situation in Malta. A larger proportion, 39 per cent, stated they followed political events in Europe.
The report can be downloaded from http://mauricecauchi.wordpress.com .
Survey findings
• 77 per cent considered them-selves Catholic but only 37 per cent attended Church regularly on Sundays.
• 57 per cent claimed to be able to understand Maltese at least moderately well, but only 21 per cent use it to speak to parents or friends.
• 69 per cent stated that they never speak in Maltese to their children.
• 82 per cent visited Malta several times while 10 per cent had never been to Malta.