What we really, really want!

It is customary to greet a visiting Maltese dignitary with traditional Maltese largesse, and I am sure that the prime minister's current visit to Australia will be no different in this respect.

It will provide an opportunity for many to feel that indeed they still form part of that community which they lovingly call Malta. Some even have coined a new term - a Greater Malta - to include it in the totality of Maltese migrants wherever they happen to be, and link them together into one emotional, albeit not economic or political, whole.

It is a visit which was promised when, on a whirlwind trip last February for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Queensland, he did not have time to visit anywhere else. Understandably, though without any justification, this raised eyebrows, and spilled unnecessary ink in papers which should know otherwise. So, also from this point of view, this is a very suitable response.

But having said that, what is the real point of the exercise? What is the message that is being taken to the antipodes? And, more importantly, what is the message that is likely to be brought back?

It is well to reiterate that the range of people who could claim Maltese lineage varies in age from 1 to 100 years. As a result of a marked rate of intermarriage of Maltese with their European, Australian and less often Asian neighbours, some have no more than 1/16th of their genes which are true blue Maltese. They are spread over three, sometimes four generations. So a more polyglot mixture is hard to envisage.

It is ludicrous therefore to think that you can satisfy all of these with any one simple formula. Their needs are different, their ideas, hopes, aims are as varied as those of any other mixture of populations.

The needs of the first generation have been well highlighted - as for instance at the Convention of Maltese Abroad held in February 2000 in Valletta. They are most grateful for innovations like dual citizenship agreements, and bilateral health agreements. These have been the significant innovations that have mattered to migrants.

But political issues, whether party political or supra-political, Maltese migrants can do without altogether.

What about the EU? To be frank, I doubt if there would be more than a dozen migrants who care whether Malta joins the EU or not. Do not misunderstand me: Personally I think that for the Maltese in Malta, joining the EU is the most important single development since Independence. But I also doubt whether there will be many first-generation Maltese migrants who will be flocking to Europe after Malta has become part of a greater EU.

What holds for the first generation holds even more so for the second and subsequent generations. The vast majority of young people in Australia are not waiting for this happy occasion to leave for Europe.

Traditionally, Australian youths, more than anyone else on earth, are more likely to pack a knapsack and trek through the lesser known lanes of Europe - and then go back to continue their life in their own home.

I believe that our own Maltese-Australian youths belong to this category and do not think this is going to change materially. By the third generation, the hyphenation is lost and they are as Australian as the next mate with whom they share a beer.

If you were to ask me what Maltese migrants really want, I would include the following:

¤ Inclusion of other members of the family within the Maltese citizenship scheme, those who at the moment are excluded for one reason or another;

¤ More interest and involvement in the issues of elderly Maltese in Australia. Old age means poverty and isolation whatever the country one happens to be living in. A migrant old person suffers from double jeopardy;

¤ A more active programme encouraging maintenance of culture, including language, for those who feel the need for such support;

¤ An opportunity for younger persons to maintain links with the old country.

If it has no other function, the visit of a Maltese prime minister to migrants in another country serves as an important reminder to those at home that there exists a corner of a foreign land that is forever Malta.

It is these people also who need to be reminded of the sacrifice and commitment of this substantial proportion of their own brethren who went overseas, and the resultant benefit that has accrued to the homeland ever since.

It is for this reason that, following a recommendation by the Convention mentioned above, a committee was formed in Malta a year ago to organise a Migration Museum as a memorial to all these people.

While it has been successful in setting up a virtual museum on the website (www.maltamigration.com) which contains the most comprehensive collection of information relating to migration, and which is being made use of quite extensively, the committee has been quite unsuccessful in getting started on a real physical museum where exhibits and memorabilia could be put on display.

The lack of assistance from government sources has been the one single factor which has been most instrumental in preventing such a project from taking off. It would be most appropriate if, at the end of an era when (legal) migration to and from Malta has all but come to an end, the whole historical process be adequately documented and exhibited properly for all to appreciate.

I hope that this visit will convince the prime minister that such an endeavour would be of benefit to the Maltese community abroad and that he will finally provide the means to make it a reality.

Prof. Cauchi is a former president of the Maltese Community Council of Victoria, Australia.