It’s interesting to see than less than 1% of Maltese citizens are living in another EU state (although the percentage of Actual Native Maltese — i.e. excluding billionaires from other countries who bought the passport — may be lower).
And I’m curious about why, since it seems that so many Maltese dislike the current state of their country. Unlike Romanians who took over Italy, Spain and now Ireland
https://i.redd.it/fbhs89uhbthf1.jpeg
Posted by samostrout
19 Comments
answer is simple. they are richest in Europe
Because most Maltese people migrate to the UK which is not an EU state.
cos it’s fucking great here
Mentality
From young age we like to stay close to family. I seen this when I went to erasmus. Foreigners leave their family home to study at the age of 18 and create self dependancy. Malta average age of leaving their parents home is 30. Sometimes I think that we are so close minded as a society because of this reason since we only see Malta and not beyond.
I think there might be 2 reasons for this. The first one I think would be that since most Maltese people still live with their parents for a very long time and are constantly with their families, it would be very hard for them to move away since one cannot really get a quick ride or train to mainland Europe (which is one of the main reasons stopping me and some of my closest friends for example). The second would be that since we speak Maltese and English, our options to move abroad in Europe are quite limited to English speaking countries, as opposed to other countries which have similar languages to their neighbours and sometimes speak multiple other EU languages at a time.
Why not
I think that Malta and Romania are not very comparable. While we do indeed dislike our governments, on an individual level, people are pretty comfortable here. This greatly disincentives moving out unless it’s for professional development.
Many younger people want to move but when push comes to shove, they don’t take the leap. Also a combination of language + opportunity barriers:
Italy for example is not desirable for younger people due to lack of opportunities, might as well stay in Malta.
Germany, France and Switzerland are hard to integrate if you don’t speak French or German, which not every Maltese person does.
The Netherlands and Belgium: seeing many Maltese people around Brussels and the Dutch Randstad, but these are mostly people who are either similarly highly skilled in specific industries (mostly IT), or EU Institution employees who are there to meet the member state representation quota. Also, you need to learn Dutch to survive in either country, and also French in Belgium. Probably the two countries outside of the UK where most Maltese moved to.
Many other member states also face lack of opportunities, or they’re simply bitterly cold for the average Maltese person.
Because there’s like 10 of us in the entire world
Because the UK is not in EU, do we have numbers for Maltese citizens in UK? I’d guess it’s probably higher than in the EU, and no language issues for people that want to leave.
Because they all ended up in Canada, Australia and the UK.
Ireland is very low here because most Irish emigrate to UK, US, Canada, Australia, and NZ. I myself have moved to Switzerland. A lot of us emigrate but outside EU
I assume it’s the same for Malta
First of all the majority of gen. Zs in Malta have been pampered both by their families and Politicians to the extent that even when they venture abroad they quickly give up and come running back to the shelter and comfort of their families and Maltese society as a whole. Grand parents step in to help even with raising their nephews and during financial woes. Gen.Zs have also been raised by their grand parents to lead an ultra sheltered and pampered life. Even if they cannot afford to buy their own residence they live with their parents or their grand parents waiting patiently and comfortably till they can transfer them to an old people’s home or they pass away to inherit the residence. Discipline and enforcement are non-existent in Malta so the I don’t give a fuck(ABZ) culture has flourished. While lenient mushy court sentences practically encourage wrong doers to persist. A handful of rowdy tattooed wannabe tough guys can easily become notorious in Malta whereby in other countries they would be swallowed and end up badly. Yes Malta has become a sort of wannabe tough guys paradise where with the right connections or family ties one can actually get away with murder. Students hardly ever protest or feel the need to take to the streets. In other countries students and youths work to support their studies. Here they have stipends and summer working schemes besides support from their parents.
you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world…
As others mentioned, part of the reason is that most who emigrate tend to go to England and Australia which are not EU states so not accounted for.
However, I’d point to things here such as the weather (very big reason, I’d venture to say we have the best weather in the EU), close proximity to places, close community ties and abundance of work tend to keep people here.
Also, reddit is an echo chamber. People love to complain when in reality things are not that bad here.
Because you don’t want to learn a new language…
Have you seen the state of most of these places, why move backwards
Because they took their own advice and “went back to der Kantri! Mela!”
Loads of us are in the uk – although I came here before Brexit. Much harder to migrate now